Will you be happy, if I come back to you?
by Rains without Haven
Summary: Post S6.Miraculously cured and now back to the land of living, Nabu finds himself in a different world. Layla is with Nex,the squad and everybody has,apparently,moved on.Will it be worth coming back?Riven left the squad & seemingly irreparable relations behind;only to return when needed.Will they ever feel welcomed? While the evil rises yet again,will the Heroes & the Winx make it?
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's note:** So this basically takes place after the 6th season of Winx club, Musa and Riven have broken up, Layla (Aisha) and Nex are dating and the rest of the gang is the pretty much the same with of course Daphne and Thoren. Daphne is not part pf the Winx club but is a good friend and sister and similarly, Thoren, Nex and Jared are not part of the squad of specialists that we all very well know. This story mostly revolves around the heroes, but that doesn't mean that the **'fairies',** (not just the winx), will be any less in it. This has no link with the season 7 of Winx club whatsoever. And of course, **I do not own anything but the story**. This story was earlier called : Everything has changed.  
_

 **Will You be happy, if I come back to you.  
**

 **Chapter -1**

Drip. Drip. Drip. Riven watched as drop by drop rain poured down the window, making a splattering sound as it hit the ground, inducing him to shiver even though he was not cold. Stretching his arm across the counter, he cleared his throat, instantaneously grasping the attention of the receptionist.

"Hello Welcome to Blue Garden Hotel, how can I help you?" She whispered, her cobalt eyes going wide as she smiled.

"Hi" Riven said offhandedly. "I was wondering if any rooms are free Ms…" His magenta eyes landed on her name plate. "Ella"

"Of course!" Ella said, too excitedly, giving a smarmy smile.

"Great." Riven waited for her to continue, blinking, he cleared his throat again, getting uncomfortable under her gaze.

"Yes right. SO, your name…" She turned away, scribbling something down, "Riven right?"

"You know me?" Riven looked at her in astonishment. Here and there, people did recognize him sometimes as one of the specialists who saved the world with winx (not just once) but he still wasn't comfortable with all the attention.

"Who doesn't?" She asked, as if it was too obvious. "Winx club and your squad has saved the world so many times, I have lost count." Ella smiled once again.

"Right." Riven nodded bluntly, not knowing what else to say.

"So I don't think there is a need of an ID, here is your pass-card, and your room number will be E-903." The receptionist handed over the key. "It is a two bedroom. The only one available." She glanced over at him apologetically before typing something down in the hovering screen-computer in front of her.

"Not a problem." He smirked, taking the card.

"You are all alone?" Ella asked all of a sudden and Riven got even more uncomfortable.

"Yeah, any problem?" His eyebrows flew up and the girl in front of him fumbled.

"Um…No…just, last time I heard, you were dating one of the Winx." Ella stuttered, looking away while her cheeks burned a bright shade of red.

Just the thought of Musa was enough for Riven to blink and clear a lump in his throat.

"Well, not anymore." He murmured under his breath so softly that Ella barely heard him. With a tinge of annoyance Riven banged his fist lightly on the desk. Sure he was kind of famous now, but he still had a personal life.

"Not prying. Just wondering." She defended her self, giving him yet another apologetic look. "We are having a Singles night Special tonight, if you want, I can totally save you a seat." Ella smiled, gazing at him hopefully.

"As intriguing as that may seem, I would just be alone tonight." Riven nodded brusquely at her and started towards the elevator.

"Let me know if you change your mind." The receptionist called back.

"Pretty sure I won't." Riven answered, not bothering to look back at the girl.

* * *

"Alright we are on!" Sky heard Timmy exclaim in excitement as he reached over to collect his own blue sword for the combat. Turning around, his blue eyes widened at his opponent. Standing right in front of him, in the world's most awkward fighting position was Brandon, with his green broadsword hung loosely across his right fist, the Squire's both arms were stretched droopily at his sides and his left knee was lifted till his waist, which left only his right leg to balance his whole body weight on. The specialists specialized in many things, combat, yes, strategy, yes, agility and balance skills, yes, weaponry, yes, weird fighting stances, no.

"Haae Ya" Brandon shrieked in a high pitched voice, striving to hold his grip on the ground.

"Dude, what do you think you are doing, posing there like some weird ballerina? I thought we were training." Sky couldn't help but laugh at his squire, who at the moment was glaring daggers at him.

"It's Kung Fu man." Brandon informed Sky, placing his left leg back on the ground and crossing his arms across his chest. "It's an ancient fighting art taught on Earth. Timmy, explain it to our laughing king here please." Brandon nodded at Timmy, all the while glaring at the still guffawing Sky.

"According to everything that I know about Kung Fu, that was anything _but_ a fighting kung fu position." Timmy joined in laughing with Sky, who was right now in middle of huge fits of laughter.

"No, seriously, what was that?" Sky asked in between laughing.

"You are just jealous that I learnt a little something when we were on Earth a couple months ago to find that dragon tamer." Brandon smirked smugly, reaching for his broadsword, his grip on the hilt tightened. "We are still on guys, even though it is not an even match." Brandon stated, giving a little cocky smile of his that always made Stella swoon.

"Of course it is not an even match, its specialists versus a ballerina." Sky tutted, pulling his own weapon in position. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Timmy taking out his blaster and shield.

"It's not even because Helias still out, but I don't need an extra teammate to take you both laughing dolls down" Brandon blew out a little whistle as adrenaline rushed into his blood stream.

"Not when you are up against the best specialists of Red Fountain." Sky shot back with the same exhilaration as Brandon.

"Well, I am one of them too." Brandon smirked in a conceited way. And with that the fight began. Sky knew that Brandon will attack first; he always did, so he geared up for defense instead of offense and signaled at Timmy to be ready with his blaster. Brandon, as anticipated, lunged at the blonde specialist with full force, Sky blocked him with his blue shield and Timmy readied his blaster to knock the squire's broadsword out of his hand. But this time something new happened, instead of going in for another sharp blow of his green broadsword, Brandon swiftly moved his right ankle to the side and with impressive professionalism, kicked Sky, inducing Sky to fall flat on the ground. And before Timmy could retaliate, Brandon elbowed the orange-blonde specialist in the stomach which made Timmy stumble over and fall himself.

"And that, little girls, is how it is done." Brandon looked over at the now sitting Sky and Timmy.

"Well, that was new." Sky said, running his hand through his hair, inspecting for any damage, there wasn't any of course. After all, he was a specialist. And specialist specialized in being tough.

"That was Brandon at his worse. Think what I can do when I am in mood?" Brandon's green eyes met Sky's blue ones, and without words, Sky accepted the challenge. It was a typical best friend thing. The two Eraklians had become so close since childhood that now it was like second nature to talk without words, comfort without words and of course challenge without words.

"What say Timmy? Wanna go again?" Sky asked the spectacled specialist sitting beside him.

"You betcha." Timmy grinned, already getting up for the battle.

"With a comment like that Brandon, Riven would have taken you bare handed." Timmy grinned at the memory of their best friend and Brandon and Sky did the same. As annoying as Riven could be sometimes, he still was a great friend to them all and his absence still hurt them beyond words. To put in simple words, they missed Riven, they surely did. After all those years spent together there was no chance in hell that they won't. But it wasn't like they were going to express their feelings like the Winx probably did. The group fell silent for some time and no one dared to talk.

"Alright little dollies, let's go!" Brandon feigned excitement, the first to break the silence.

"Yep!" Timmy agreed, as the three specialists reached for their respective weapons.

"Not winning this time bro." Sky shouted at Brandon, raising his blue sword while suddenly some golden laser strings grabbed hold his weapon. The three guys looked at the corner of the entryway, and standing there was none other than Helia, holding Sky's sword in place with his strings.

"What's wrong?" Timmy was the one to speak, noticing the tension on Helia's face. The pacifist's face was marred with stress and anxiety. Something was up, they knew it.

"The girls." Was all Helia said and the guys already started jogging towards the corridors, not wasting a minute. Timmy watched as a light in the corridors flickered and changed from daylight yellow to mid night blue. Which meant it was dark outside now. With the technology taking its toll on Red fountain, Saladin, the Red Fountain Headmaster had installed time and temperature sensing lights in the school. Brandon never saw the need for this particular decision but Timmy always liked it. But, well Timmy could get enthralled by a simple phone charger for crying out loud, so temp and time sensing lights were something at least. But right now, all the specialists could think about was the Winx Club. Those girls had a knack to get into trouble.

Helia wasted no time as they skipped through corridors and toward their rooms. "So I was talking to Flora and she said that the girls wanted to talk to us and that it's very important. They need us right away."

"That's it?" Sky inquired, looking over at Helia.

"Yeah, she just wouldn't say what is wrong." Helia's voice shook with panic.

"You go get Thoren, Jared and Nex, we will meet you near our Levi bikes." Brandon was quick to command, nodding at Helia.

"Fine." Helia said and walked away, leaving the three boys at the elevator.

* * *

Alfea was just some distance away. At least that's how it seemed when viewed from the grand Balconies of Red Fountain. But in reality Alfea was pretty far away, right across Lake Roccaluce. The rain still continued to rain down persistently and by the looks of it, it seemed that it was going to be that way for a few days but the guys just carried on as if it did not bother them. Even if it did bother them, they ignored it.

Nex gripped tighter at his bike's handle, prompting his bike to go faster. If only this damn Levi Bike could teleport. Something was going on, and he knew that Layla needed him and more importantly he needed Layla right now. Seriously why did Winx always get in trouble? Nex swear he would tie them up, if that meant that they will be away from trouble. Whooshing past Brandon, Nex sped up till he was right beside Helia's bike, making some water puddle splash up in the process.

"What do you think has happened?" Nex asked.

"I have no idea; let's hope that it's not something bad." Helia tried to keep his voice even but failed.

"Right." Nex shot back sarcastically, if you knew winx club, you would know that with their luck, anything could be bad, even a holiday.

When it came to panicking, Brandon was always far behind but when it came to Stella, he could be super panicky. If something was wrong with his snookums, he would fight tooth and nail to help her. She was his shining sun and his silver moon. It was cliché and cheesy, but true. The green-eyed specialist desperately strived to calm down his heart, which was running at the speed of a squad jet. He had to get to Stella and had to get to her now. What if one of the rogues they had defeated were back. His mind ran through all the big baddies they had faced. Trix, Lord Darkar, Valtor, Wizards of the Dark Circle, Tritannus, Acheron. They had taken them down once (more than once in Trix's case), they will take them down again.

Sky was hit worse than Brandon. As the keeper of the Dragon Flame, Bloom had always been the most powerful among all the Winx girls, which also made her the most common target for attack. She had been kidnapped by Lord Darkar, had once lost her power to the Trix, had risked her life stopping Tritannus and pretty much saved everybody's life every freaking time. Why did she always have to risk it all the time? It was selfish of Sky to think that but he was just being protective of the girl he loved.

Helia watched as Alfea came into view, the inner glow and warmth of the radiant school felt welcoming as always. The pacifist swerved past a few trees and skidded to a stop in front of the school, deactivating his Levi helmet and mounting off his hovering bike. He started towards the entrance, while he heard a few more noises of dying engines as all the boys joined him. The Winx were all there, gathered around an outside bench. Bloom, Stella and Musa were on the bench while Flora, Tecna and Layla were sprawled on the ground all wearing weary expressions. Even Daphne, Bloom's sister was there.

"Flora!" Helia called out as the fairy of nature came running into his open arms.

"Helia!" Flora smiled, hugging Helia back and politely ignoring the fact that he was totally drenched. A look at her was all he needed to know that something was not right.

"What's wrong?" He asked, clasping his hand in hers as they ambled toward the rest of group. Sky had Bloom scooped up in his arms, as if he will never let her go again, Brandon did pretty much the same with Stella, Nex was holding Layla as if she was delicate china, Timmy and Jared on the contrary stood beside Tecna and Musa, listening to them instead of crushing them with their entire body weight.

"Actually…" Bloom began.

* * *

 _I am a Jimmy-Jammy Treat, Eat me with bread, eat me with meat._

The advertisement droned on and Riven's eyed bugged as he strained them to watch the TV anymore. He had plans for tomorrow but tonight was as unplanned as the rain still pouring down relentlessly.

 _Man, room service is slow here_ , Riven thought, rubbing his eyes, frustrated, he switched the television off, watching as the Levi Hovering TV Screen shut down instantly when commanded. Throwing the too complex remote controller on his bed side stand, he reached for his cell. Timmy would have loved to see that remote control that was for sure, he would have loved to open it all up and then try to explain to all the guys what was in it that actually made the channels change, until of course, Brandon and Riven threw some pillows at him (and some even colorful language on Riven's side), Sky's and Helia's disapproval to actually stop the geek from enlightening them on the topic of REMOTE CONTROLLERS any further. God, he missed them, he really did. He was tough, but was not made of stone. He missed those silly squabbles with Brandon, those heated fights with Sky, those hard debates with Helia and that witty exchange of comments with Timmy. He missed the Brother hugs, the back slapping, and the high fiving. He missed everything about his squad. He did not leave his squad behind, he left his band of brothers behind. They all really were brothers. And above all that he missed Musa, so badly that it hurt. Swiping through the phone menu, he opened the phone gallery and an image of him and his squad popped open, all of them giving goofy grins, holding some smoothies in their hands _._

 _It was taken at the Fruity Music Bar on Earth_ , he remembered, smiling at the memory, when Timmy had ordered a banana smoothie and all the guys had "accidentally" spilled milk on him.

 _Musa had looked so beautiful singing that day_ , it was the last day at the Fruity Music Bar he recalled. He swapped the picture for another one of everyone cleaning up the beach and before he could think of it he heard a hard knock on the door.

 _Finally_ , he thought, springing to his feet to open the door for the Room Service. He opened the door to find Ella standing in the corridor, her hands scooped up with plates and cutlery. Riven looked over at her, frowning, he was pretty sure that hotels like Blue Garden offered enough staff so that a receptionist won't have to work as a waiter or helper too. He knew what was going on, shaking his head, he let her in.

"Sorry for the delay." Ella said, after she had finished setting the table up for Riven.

"You are a waitress too?" Riven asked bluntly, his voice dripping with disapproval.

"Well…uh…desperate times." Ella flashed one of her best flirtatious smiles at him, blinking lightly.

"Too desperate I guess." Riven shook his head. All he wanted was to stay alone. Was that too much to ask?

"Thank you." Riven said in a dismissive tone, nodding over the door.

"My pleasure." The girl in front of him did not move an inch, twirling her hair; she looked at him hopefully with her cobalt eyes. Riven let out a defeated sigh.

"Well…" Riven nodded at the door again, not wanting to be rude but Riven being Riven could not be polite too long.

"You need something?" Riven asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Uh…" Ella mused, pouting, making her look even cuter (She thought so at least).

"Hmm?" Riven prompted her to answer, his magenta eyes looking directly into her blue ones.

"Just, wondering if you are free tomorrow." Ella smirked, refusing to let go of his gaze.

"I am not." Riven stated curtly. He had had it with these kind of mind games.

"Oh, Okay." Ella replied and he could hear the disappointment in her voice. Even though he was in no mood, he felt like making an amend.

"It's just that I don't feel well." Riven lied smoothly. If he was good at anything, it was lying. He had some way with it, something about the way he lied that made people wholly believe him.

"Was just asking because we…uh..have..a..uh…fest tomorrow." Ella desperately tried to cover up.

"Right" Riven said.

Ella started to leave and when she was sure she was out of ear shot she muttered, "Musa gets them all. Riven and then Jared. Uh…so unfair."

But somehow Riven heard her. Loud and clear.

* * *

"SO you are telling me that you guys were planning for this year's Starter Mixer and suddenly heard some voices inside your heads _at_ the _same time_. _"_ Brandon looked over the girls for confirmation. In a world where dragons, monsters, Down landers, fairies, witches, mermaids and many other stuff which could be qualified creepy was completely common, something like this was not out of place but it still managed to creep Brandon out.

"YES!" The Winx almost screamed in unison, annoyed beyond words.

"How many times exactly are we supposed to say that Brandon?" Stella's irked honey golden eyes met Brandon's still surprised green ones.

"Dude!" Sky gazed at his squire with a warning look.

"Am I the only one creeped out right now?" Brandon asked no one in particular, crossing his arms across his chest in a defensive manner. Sure he had speculated worse but that didn't mean that this was anything good.

"Brandon, ssh." Timmy shushed the green eyed specialist so that the girls could continue.

"We are sure that it was Nebula." Flora said.

"The queen of the Earth fairies?" Sky asked and Flora nodded.

"What was she saying?" Nex questioned. None of this made any sense to him.

"She wants to meet us. She said it was something very important." Bloom spoke for everyone.

"What were her exact words?" Timmy exchanged a worried expression with Sky before looking over at Bloom.

"She said that, 'This is something very important girls. Please come to meet us tomorrow with the specialists, all eleven of you are supposed to be here." Bloom stated and her expression was unreadable. Sky suppressed a strong to urge to scoop her in his arms again and comfort her and the way she looked at him; he knew that she wanted the same.

"Are you guys alright?" Thoren spoke, asking the girls standing in front of him. While Daphne and Bloom seemed alright, the rest of the girls looked drained of color, a sure sign that they were all exhausted.

"The thing is establishing a psychic connection over long distances is very arduous. We are drained of our powers right now." Tecna informed him in a clam tone.

"I did not get any such message." Daphne said to Thoren and now it made perfect sense to him. This was why Daphne looked fine and since Bloom was the keeper of the Dragon Flame, maybe she was able to withstand such magic. But the rest of the girls looked as if they were going to pass out any moment and the specialists were by the sides of their girlfriends to support them.

"What should we do?" Sky's blue eyes met with Bloom's warm azure ones and his hand rested on her waist.

"We are leaving tomorrow." Bloom announced, her voice hinting tiredness.

"Yeah, they need our help, maybe." Flora spoke; her usually calm and controlled voice came out too strained.

"The eleven of us?" Brandon frowned at the sound of that, excluding Nex, Jared and Thoren (Since the Earth fairies barely knew them) they were only ten.

"We are assuming that the eleventh one of us is Riven." Musa's usually singsong voice seemed stressed and Brandon looked at her for a moment. After Stella of course, Musa and Bloom were the closest to him and Musa in particular was just like a sister he never had.

"Will you be alright?" Brandon gazed at her, asking the question everyone had in mind.

"Geez, why not?" Musa said, feigning to be tough. But behind all that, everyone knew that she was anything but alright. From time to time, Riven came up in casual conversations and Musa was the first to excuse herself at those kind of times. You need not be a genius to know that she still missed him. It was kind of obvious because Musa was one of those people who never were an expert to hide and conceal their feelings.

 _So unlike_ _Riven,_ Brandon couldn't help but think as pity and sadness washed over him. Pity for Musa, and Sadness for Riven. If it was hard for even him to think about Riven, how hard would it have been for Musa?

"We love you!" Stella chirped as all the guys and girls moved around Musa for a group hug.

"I love you guys too" Musa stated, smiling in spite of herself.

* * *

"I wish I could come too." Musa heard Daphne say. Everyone was slowly clearing out now. It was decided that tomorrow the Winx and the Specialists will be going to the palace of Tir Nan Og, the palace where the queen of the Earth fairies reigned. And only the eleven of them were going. (Or ten of them at least). Which made Nex quiet cranky and Daphne very guilty as she couldn't accompany her little sister. Thoren on the other hand accepted it without any reluctance.

"It's alright Hon, we were supposed to go to Eraklyon tomorrow anyway." Thoren said to his wife, after their wedding, Daphne and Thoren had some job to be done on his home planet nonetheless.

"We will be fine Daphne. I promise." Bloom told her sister earnestly with Sky's hand laced in hers.

"Give father and mother my regards." Sky said to his cousin. It had been awhile since the king of Eraklyon had been to his home planet and he wondered whether everything was fine there.

"Sure thing bro" Thoren said to Sky, parting away, as Sky started towards Bloom's dorm to drop her off.

"I am fine Sky." Bloom said for the millionth time to Sky, who held her like she was a little baby in his arms.

"Of course you are." The blonde specialist replied. Even though he knew she was more than capable of going to her dorm alone, he had a feeling to not leave her side even for a second.

"Sky!" Bloom feigned annoyance but giggled in spite of herself.

Brandon literally carried Stella in his arms but you couldn't blame him, the fairy of the shinning sun looked really weak. "You will be fine snookums. All you need is a little rest." The brunette said, gazing at his girlfriend. "Brandon, I can walk." Stella reminded him but she wasn't complaining.

Timmy and Helia escorted Tecna and Flora to their dorms too.

Musa smiled at the retreating figures of her friends, deciding to linger around. Layla, not wanting her to be alone, stayed by her side. As much as Jared and Nex wanted to hang around them too, they knew it was best if they gave the two fairies some alone time. After their goodbyes, Nex and Jared walked out into the rain, jogging to their Levi bikes, with a final wave, Musa watched as the two specialists left. Listening to the music the dripping rain made, Musa's lips curved into a smile. The two girls were silent for some time, neither of them wanting to break the sweet silence that had settled between them.

Layla stood beside Musa while Helia, Timmy, Sky and Brandon appeared at the doorway, ready to leave too. She assumed that they were finished saying goodbyes to their girlfriends.

"Bye guys!" Musa and Layla said in unison, waving at them.

"Bye. Take care." Sky said sincerely to both the girls on everyone's behalf. Musa smiled again, watching Sky, Timmy and Helia as they sped away into the rain. Brandon in contrast, loitered back. Sensing that he wanted to speak to her, Layla saw her cue and nodded, starting to leave.

"I am fine Bran." Musa answered the unasked question held in Brandon's eyes.

"I can call him if you want." Brandon offered softly, his jade eyes meeting Musa's azure ones.

"It's alright. Really. It's been like four months now. I will call him." Musa nodded, reassuring him.

"You sure?" The squire narrowed his eyes slightly before smiling.

"Yep!" Musa smiled back. "Now go before this rain gets worse." Musa said, punching Brandon slightly on his bicep.

"See Ya." The brunette said, running towards his Levi bike. Sometimes, Musa really envied Stella. It wasn't like she had any feelings for Brandon or anything, it's just she wondered what it would be like to have such a considerate and sweet boyfriend for a change. She had Jared now, but she never felt that spark with him. For her, it will always be Riven. Blinking, Musa touched her cheek as something tickled her, realizing in horror that she was crying. Musa hated crying, it made her look like a weakling when she was anything but. Thankfully no one was around, so she let herself off guard. Giving way to tears she never knew she had in herself. After awhile, instead of walking towards her dorm, she waltzed towards the rain. Running head-on into the down pour of water, Musa laughed as tiny droplets hit her, seeping into her dark navy blue hair. Stepping into a water puddle, she splashed water around. Water never bothered her, if anything, it made great music. Unlike Stella, who hated getting wet.

"Live, like it's your last day." Musa hummed to her favorite song all the while splashing in puddles. Dancing around, she let the song take over her. Suddenly a tune started playing, which she recognized as the singing whales from her planet Melody. Reaching for her phone in her pocket, she ran for some shelter so that she could speak to the caller. Looking at the caller ID her eyes widened and her heart started racing.

 **Author's Note: Alright guys please let me know what you think. Share your thoughts. An update coming soon. Peace out!**

 **\- Rains without Haven  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: Okay so well, here is the next chapter, it is kind of small. So well,** **according to me it rains in Magix for about two months roughly and this takes place during the rainy season. I have added some of my fav dialogues of Riven and Musa from past seasons in this chapter. So here goes. For all the Riven and Musa fans out there.**

 **Chapter – 2**

Drip. Drip. Drip. Riven watched as drop by drop rain poured down the window, making a splattering sound as it hit the ground. The rain had worsened.

 _Okay, so all I need to do is kill that Jared, piece of cake._

Riven's violet eyes narrowed as his lips curved into a grin, a malicious grin. The specialist had promised himself that that he would not return to the life of crime ever again. But right now at this moment, breaking that promise did not seem bad. Not at all. After all, the people who ultimately kept their promises were good. Too good for his taste. He wasn't the 'bad boy' just for names sake. Riven _was not good_. And he was tired of pretending to be. He was tired of pretending that everything was fine. He was tired of pretending that he was not in love with Musa. Frustrated, his hand curled into a fist and before he knew it, he had punched his fist right into the wall beside the window he was standing in front of.

"Damn pixie." Riven muttered under his breath, his mind clouded with memories of Musa:

" _ **I'm sure you don't really want to do the whole mushy goodbye, good luck thing, right? Right. Just checking."**_

 _ **"Promise you'll come back to me. I don't know what I would do without you, Musa. OK?"**_

* * *

" _ **Don't you dare tell anyone I cried..."**_

 _ **"I... won't."**_

* * *

" _ **Oh, um, listen, they don't teach us how to do it in heroics class, but I gotta say I really like you, and now I gotta go, bye!"**_

* * *

" _ **Riven we certainly had our ups and downs. And it is clear that we are not meant to be together. But you will always be a hero to me."**_

* * *

Shaking his head till all the memories washed away, Riven threw another fist in the wall, cursing as a small pang of pain hit him back.

 _How are we not meant to be? If we are not, then who is?_

Why did he not say something when he had the chance? By the looks of it, he had lost Musa. Forever maybe.

 _What is wrong with me?_

This was not the first time Riven had asked himself that _._ And something told him that this won't be the last either.

BAM!

The specialist hit the wall again, much harder this time. He was not a masochist, no; it's just that he needed someone or something to take out his anger on.

"Curse that goddamned Jared." The hero almost shrieked.

" _ **Musa gets them all. Riven and then Jared. So unfair."**_ **Ella's voice rang in his ears**.

"Of course it is unfair. Nothing is fair in this bloody life. Never was and never will be." Riven's voice echoed through the room, making him feel, if anything, even lonelier. His voice bordering cynicism. Being cynical was yet, another eminence of Riven.

 _Moving on is supposed to be easy,_ Riven thought.

His mind rushing back to the times he had spent on streets as a kid, begging for food, wandering for a livelihood, craving for love and stealing money. A little, innocent, kid left by his own mother to wither, shrink and shrivel in the cruel world with no one to go to. He still remembered those cold nights when he used to sneak in shop basements to keep warm only to be evicted in the morning by the angry shop owners. Those dark memories came dashing back to him. All those, sleepless nights, frosty mornings, steely afternoons and hard years, spent all alone. Riven himself pitied that kid in his vague memories. He knew that he wasn't _him_ anymore. He had moved on from all that, hell he had moved on from his own mother for crying out loud. This was supposed to be a walk in the park. And sadly it wasn't. It always caught Riven by surprise to see how much control Musa had over him even though they were no longer together now. The feelings that she evoked inside him were indescribable. There were many things Riven hated. He hated feeling defeated, loathed dealing with those unreadable feelings and utterly despised not having control over his own freaking head, knowing the fact that he himself did not know what exactly he was feeling and what he actually wanted. And right now, he was feeling all of that, all together in full blast. Inadvertently, he hit another knuckle in the wall, hurting himself badly this time and letting himself scream with all the rage and pain he had in himself. Blinking, he looked around, as if realizing for the first time where he was before he heard a firm knock on the door. Skipping through the hallway and toward the living room, he swerved past the elegant white leather couch to open the door only to reveal the receptionist standing at the other side of the door.

"Is everything alright?" Ella asked timidly, blinking.

"People heard some... noises, is everything fine?" The girl repeated her question all the while letting herself in the room, wanting to check herself, she started for the Hallway.

"Um, yeah, totally." Riven called back, his voice hinting tiredness. He did feel exhausted.

 _Man, punching walls really needs energy, might as well have used it on Jared instead._

Riven smirked at the thought, flexing his arms with a quick stretch. Nodding, Ella appeared in the hallway.

"Everything seems fine." She said, looking over Riven closely, "While, you don't." The receptionist noted. After all the humiliation just some time ago, she had let go of the idea of hitting on Riven and he was thankful of that. Her eyes darted around the corner; seeing the still untouched plate of food on the table she had set earlier she shook her head, too keen to express her disapproval.

"Maybe you should eat." Ella suggested with a tinge of fake casualness, peering at the magenta haired hero.

"Maybe I will." Riven said briskly, too early to sound true, even to his own ears.

"Right." Ella said, sensing his tone.

"Alright so then, well, have a good night and call the reception if needed." Ella said in a diplomatic tone and started to leave, reaching for the doorknob. As Riven watched her retreat an idea popped up in his head.

"Hey Ella."

"Yeah?" The girl turned around hopefully, a smile stretched across her face.

"Is the singles night still on?" Riven asked offhandedly.

"Yes" Ella said, trying not to sound too excited.

"Save me a seat then." Riven smiled crookedly, "I will be there in no time."

"Of course." Ella beamed, walking away all the while striving to control herself.

 _But before that, I need to speak to her. I have to._

Reaching for his jean pocket, Riven retrieved his phone, scrolling through the contacts till he reached the one he wanted. Pushing the CALL button, he held the phone to his ear and waited for her to pick the phone up.

 **So, Please let me know what you think about it. Peace out!**

 **\- Rains without Haven**


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N:  
Okay, so when I think about Musa and riven talking after four months. I don't see them talking completely about their feelings. It just does not seem practical to me. Even when they know that they miss each other. So anyway, here is the next chapter. :)  
**

 **Chapter -3**

Drip. Drip. Drip. Musa watched as drop by drop rain poured down. Her azure eyes adjusted to the dark outside now. Listening to the slow lullaby made by the splatter of the rain drops, she tried to calm her heart down, while her phones ringing elevated, demanding attention.

RIVEN, beamed the cell phone screen in huge red letters. Wiping a few rain drops off her face, the songstress pushed the attend button.

"Riven?" Riven heard her gasp on the other side and he couldn't help but smile at the sound of her voice. Sweet as always, but tinged with surprise. In the background, he heard the relentless rain pour down heavily.

"Hello?" Musa's voice insisted a reply.

"Been so long." Riven blurted out. Realizing too late that he knew he wanted to speak to her, but did not know what to say. As a hero, he was always taught to think before acting, but some things were meant to be acted on impulse. And this was one of those things. But for him, it was always acting on impulse that saved him many times, whether it was surviving on streets or ops and missions with his squad or talking for that matter. Riven never thought through anything before speaking, especially when it came to Musa, he always spoke with his instinct. With his heart. Thinking, planning in advance, choosing the right words, all of those things seemed forged and unreal to the hero. Fake and gaudy. Stillness settled between both the lines, neither of them attempting to break it.

"It has." Riven finally heard the fairy of music speak. "I am glad you called. I had something to tell you." Musa whispered, waiting patiently for Riven to digest that in.

 _Yeah? So you do think of me._

"Oh really? Cause it doesn't seem like it took you long to forget me." Out of all the things Riven could have said, he said that, a little bit more than enraged.

 _How could Musa replace me with that jerk Jared?_

"What?" Musa's voice snapped.

"That Jared guy? Seriously? He is like the lamest guy ever Musa." Life had never been easy on the hero. He had his bad times. A lot than he cared to admit. But nothing was as painfully crushing as the feeling of being replaced.

"How did you…? You have been spying on me?" Musa asked and the disappointment was heard clearly in her voice.

"I have got a life too Musa." Riven huffed with disdain, stretching his legs across the table in front of the chic ashen couch he was now lounging on. "And I don't like when it gets interfered by people wanting to know my reaction about you and that jerk being the talk of town."

"You are impossible to even talk to Riven." Musa complained, her voice breaking down. This was not how she imagined the talk will go.

"You don't make it any easier." Riven shot back, his voice dripping with disguised hurt, camouflaged with anger.

"What am I supposed to do? Sit around waiting?" The songstress asked, matching his tone.

"Four months. That's how long it took you to forget our relationship?" Riven answered her question with one of his own.

"Who do you think you are? You are not my boyfriend anymore. A friend, I don't think so. So who are you, anyway, to question me?" Riven's ears rang with Musa's shrilly voice. He did not have an answer to that, but he sure had a reply.

"Stop twirling the question around Musa." Riven countered, gazing at the window in front of him, in the background he heard a loud rumbling of thunder right after a bright streak of lightning flash in front of his violet eyes.

"Twirling the question around? You were the one who called in the first place. What do you want?" Musa posed the question, her grip tightening on the phone. Riven knew he had to say something to that, anything. All he knew that he wanted to hear her voice, sighing he let silence engulf them once again, the splatter of rain drops was the only sound to be heard. What was he supposed to say to that? He loved her, but did she?

 _I want you to appreciate having me in your life. I want you to miss me._

"You had something to tell me?" Riven sighed once again, loudly this time, giving in the impractical quarrel. He was tired of fighting with the people he cared the most about.

"Where are you?" The guardian fairy of music asked out of the blue, abandoning the fight herself.

"Where am I?" Riven repeated the question, confused.

"Yeah." Musa's usually sugary voice sounded irritated.

"Uh…In Magix. Why?" The specialist asked. His mauve eyes flitted across the window, which revealed that it was pretty dark outside now. Not pitch black, but seemingly near to twilight.

"That's good." He heard her say, while the sound of rain almost became unbearable.

"Good?" The hero's voice sounded surprised.

"I don't want to do this over the phone. Come over and then maybe we can talk." The guardian fairy of music suggested in an even tone, her eyes darting over the hazy horizon of the dark sky above her, gazing as she heard another rumbling of clouds.

As much as he wanted to say yes, he couldn't. Not right now. He was too afraid that he will ruin it all, as he always did and right now that was not an option.

"Someone is waiting for me. Why don't you tell me whatever you wanted to over the phone?" Riven asked, his voice barely heard due to the inexorable spray of rain.

"Oh." Musa murmured. The singer did not have any other reply to that. For a fleeting moment, silence settled between them again. Icy cold silence, screaming at them from all the four directions. A feeling of sadness washed over her. It hurt seeing him go on with his life when she just stood where he had left her. After all, there was a huge difference between 'moved on' and 'trying to move on'. Striving to find her voice back, she cleared her throat.

 _Have you forgotten me? Because I surely haven't_ , Musa thought, abandoning her temporary shelter under the tree and ambling towards the sheet of rain again. She wondered what Riven's reply will be if she asked that. And then everything turned red. Crimson with rage. So she was supposed to sit around while he gallivanted like some Casanova?

"So according to you Jared is a jerk and you are not?" Musa finally found her voice, surprised at the amount of heat in it.

"Huh?" Musa heard Riven's confused voice over the line.

"And I can't date him? While you can do whatever you want?" Riven cringed at those words. "Goodbye Riven." Musa snapped, cutting the line.

"Musa, I…" Riven blustered out, his voice bouncing back at him. Nobody heard him, of course if the walls and the doors were not counted.

 _I miss you. I Love you. I am sorry_ , the hero thought, his mind reeling.

 _Do you remember me? Because I surely do_.

This conversation was over and he couldn't help but hope that it had ended differently. The hero really was not good with feelings. A lot of it still felt alien to him. Riven sighed, a sigh of frustration. This was so not how he pictured the talk. Shoving his phone in his pocket, the specialist made a beeline for the door, not bothering to grab his jacket. Striding towards the elevator, the specialist waited for elevator doors to open, tapping his foot impatiently. As the doors opened, the hero did no delay to enter them; rushing inside the elevator he pressed the lobby button. Walking past the doors before they managed to open completely, he strolled across the lobby and towards the open grand doors of the hotel. Without second thought, Riven pushed his hands deep in his pockets and paced outside in the rain. Walking, as raindrops slowly seeped into his hair and drenched his clothes. Hoping beyond hopes that as the water slipped down his smooth skin, down towards the ground, all the pain of losing her, ache of being abandoned and guilt of hurting her will slip away with it too.

* * *

"I don't think that is how you do it Brandon." Timmy's voice rang in Brandon's ears and the green eyed specialist looked at his friend for help.

"Then?" The squire asked, peering at his friend. Held in his hand was a circle of metal which was up to a foot in diameter and was not something to play Frisbee with. Even though the weapon lacked a certain amount of deadliness, it's extremely sharp edge ensured that people took it rather seriously. The special training in Linphea College (1) was still continuing and the squad was given an extremely ancient weapon to learn and specialize in. This, according to their Paladin master at Linphea College, improvised their weaponry skills, helped them learn new techniques and widened their knowledge in tactics and weapons. Brandon, with a quick flick of his wrist, attempted once again to throw it like a Frisbee in the air but in vain.

"What was this ring called again?" Brandon asked Timmy.

"You are asking this for the 29th time precisely." The spectacled hero stated, annoyed, his hand-held Levi computer clutched carefully in his hands.

"Cha- what?" Brandon's eyebrows flew up, frustrated, he let go of the weapon in his hand. A small thud was heard as it hit the floor.

"A Chakram. And internet says that it is a throwing weapon from a place called India on Earth and was used extensively by the high ranking Indian Sikh warriors." (2) Timmy informed him patiently, not looking away from his computer screen, "Oh and they sometimes even called them war-quoits." The spectacled specialist said, finally glancing over at Brandon who was now propped upon his bed, looking like he will never leave his place again.

"Sikhs?" Brandon tilted his head at the oddly rare name.

"Yeah, A Sikh is a follower of the religion called Sikhism in South Asia." The orange-blonde specialist replied. "Interesting right?"

"Right." The squire said sarcastically, sighing, as he sprawled on the mattress, stretching his arms.

"You are the most helpful guy ever Brandon." Timmy said, with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"Hey, figuring a weapon out as an assignment. Easy. Makes sense. But a report and a paper on the weapon's origins and uses? Why the hell are we even supposed to do that to learn about weaponry?" Brandon complained, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the name of report.

"Right. So you are not going to help me in research, are you?" Timmy asked, but he knew the answer to that already.

"That is a job for an extremely trained expert like you, my man." The squire smirked cockily, his green eyes tinged with amusement. "We are trainee teachers at Red Fountain for crying out loud, why are supposed to write papers anyway?"

"Probably because we are practically students at Linphea College." Timmy said in a matter of factly tone.

Timmy returned to his screen and Brandon returned to relaxing, both his hands resting behind his head at ease and for a moment none of them spoke, the sound of rain splattering down the roofs of Red Fountain was the only sound to be heard.

"It's dark outside now. Let's just call it a day now shall we?" Brandon looked over the open window right across the room, noticing that the rain if anything had worsened.

"Yeah." Timmy agreed. Switching his hand- held system off, the specialist hopped down from the study table he was lounging on. "It's been a long day." The spectacled hero said, ambling over his own bed to lay down for a bit.

"It surely has." The squire agreed instantaneously, his mind going back to all the things that had happened today.

"What do you think our mission would be like tomorrow? On Earth and all I mean." Brandon wondered out loud. A lot had happened today and every muscle in his body demanded sleep, practically yelling for sleep. It wasn't like the specialist was not fit; it was just that he needed rest to digest everything that happened today in. Brandon swear that if he closed his eyes too long, he would fall asleep. Glancing over at Timmy, the hero sat up a little bit straight, waiting for his friend to respond.

"Well, I just hope that it is not something like the one on planet Domino a few years back." (3) Timmy said, "I mean-"

Whatever Timmy wanted to say was cut off by a loud bang on the door. The door opened to reveal Sky standing on the other side of the door.

"Are you both coming for dinner or you both wanna starve today or something?"

* * *

By the time Musa was under the secure shelter of Alfea, she was soaking wet, drenched to the core. If Stella would have seen her right now, she would have practically screamed at her carelessness. Musa was a mess right now, not just her clothes and hair, but her head was so jumbled up that her mind was reeling.

 ** _"Someone is waiting for me. Why don't you tell me whatever you wanted to over the phone?"_**

Riven's voice pierced through her ears again and again. He had moved on, that was so expected that it wasn't supposed to bother her. Not at all. But it did not just bother her; it hurt her beyond her belief. Why was this hurting her so much? This was supposed to happen. Both of them moving on, going on with their lives. And it did happen. For one of them at least. Wiping a few rain drops away from her face, the fairy of music paced frantically towards her room, wanting nothing more than to curl up in her bed and sleep it all out. Hugging herself, she rubbed her arms together as a shiver ran down her spine. She could have changed her outfit with magic if she wanted to, but she did not feel like it.

 ** _"Four months. That's how long it took you to forget our relationship?"_**

The voice of Riven, screamed at Musa from all directions. Anxious to mute it all out, she began singing. Listening to the rain pour down on the roof. Passing by a few hallways and the Alfea quadrangle, Musa debated whether to go to her dorm or not. Veering toward the directions of the dorms, she decided to go anyway. All the girls must be in cafeteria for dinner so she could just sneak in. She wasn't hungry, after all this, food was the last thing she needed right now. Rest. She needed rest. She could sleep for hours together, hugging herself even tighter, the fairy of music made an abrupt turn to the left.

 _**"I have got a life too Musa. And I don't like when it gets interfered by people wanting to know my reaction about you and that jerk being the talk of town."**_

Did he really say that? His voice persistently echoed inside her head. Music could mute out anything, but maybe Riven was an exception. Closing her eyes, she marched straight forward blindly. Her face was practically freezing. She just wanted to get to her room right now. She had to.

"Ouch" Musa suddenly heard a familiar voice exclaim in shock, as Musa opened her azure eyes to see the person she had bumped into. Opening her eyes, Musa saw the keeper of dragon fire gasp in horror.

"Oh my Gosh Musa. Are you okay?" Bloom's voice was barely a whisper, but her eyes seemed concerned.

"I guess." Musa stuttered out, shivering in spite of herself.

"So…how did it go? Is Riven coming?" Bloom asked, her soft blue eyes meeting Musa's wide navy blue ones.

Gasping in horror, Musa realized too late that she did not even mention a word about Earth.

 _Way to go,_ Musa thought to herself, all the while shaking her head.

The look on Musa's face was enough for Bloom to know what might have happened.

"I was supposed to say something about that, wasn't I?" Musa looked over Bloom in a rather sheepish way.

"I understand." The princess of Domino said softly, nodding. "Are you okay?" Bloom asked once again, gazing into Musa's eyes.

"I will be. I just want to be alone right now Bloom." The guardian fairy of music did not even give a second glance to her friend as she stumbled towards her dorm, leaving Bloom all alone in the corridor. Wind whooshed past Bloom's fiery red hair as the sound of rain pouring down elevated. You need not be genius like Tecna or Timmy to know that the talk between Riven and Musa did not go well. If anything, it made new wounds, deep and ghastly wounds. Bloom started walking, wondering whether to go back for Musa. And concluded that she needed some alone time right now. Strolling away towards the cafeteria, Bloom wished that Musa will be alright. Healed and cured from all the wounds.

* * *

 _ **"I have got a life too Musa. And I don't like when it gets interfered by people wanting to know my reaction about you and that jerk being the talk of town."**_

 _Did I really just say that?_

The specialist could not believe his own words. It was like his mind and mouth had no link what so ever with each other, while talking to Musa. This was the girl of his dreams, the love of his life, and this is how he made 'amends'? His violet eyes darting across the wet muddy ground as he swerved past a rain puddle with ease. The specialist looked around and his eyes registered his surroundings while the rain poured down with full force around him. He knew this place. In fact, this was one of his favorite secret spots Magix had on offer. The technology had taken its toll over the city and places with greenery in the town could be basically counted on your finger tips. His hands still in his jeans pocket, the hero moseyed past some bushes. A picture of Helia flashed in his mind, remembering how his friend had complained that the city desperately needs trees the last time they were in town together. Past some undergrowth of bushes, hidden behind some thick trees and plants - was a breathtaking view - worth getting sopping wet for. Riven's shoes squeaked as he walked down the muddy path to reveal the most beautiful view of the city overlooking a cliff from a height that was enough to give you the chills. Skidding to an abrupt stop, the specialist sighed in awe at the view in front of him. His mauve eyes widening as he took in the spectacular view of the city. Shinning bright with all the lights, in spite of the darkness that surrounded its horizons.

 ** _"That Jared guy? Seriously? He is like the lamest guy ever Musa"_** , Riven mentally kicked himself at the thought.

 _Smooth Riven. That was pretty convincing. Musa will break up with Jared any moment now_ , Riven couldn't help but think sarcastically, shaking his head, the specialist booted a pebble at the ground, crossing his arms across his chest.

 ** _Oh really? Cause it doesn't seem like it took you long to forget me._**

 _Idiot, you were not supposed to say that,_ Riven rebuked himself, sometimes the magenta haired hero really wished that he thought through stuff first.

 ** _"Who do you think you are? You are not my boyfriend anymore. A friend, I don't think so. So who are you, anyway, to question me?"_** Riven cringed as Musa's voice rang in his ears at full blast, wondering what the answer of her question really was. He was sure that whatever he had with Musa now, did not have a name to it. What was he supposed to say to that anyway?

 ** _"Someone is waiting for me. Why don't you tell me whatever you wanted to over the phone?"_**

 _Seriously?_ , sighing loudly, the hero closed his eyes. Riven knew that fairies existed, but life was anything but a fairytale. Everything around him screamed with silence, except for the unyielding shower of rain and the rumbling of thunder of course. Rains never had bothered the specialist, many times, he had been through rains without haven (4) and they did no harm but just got you irritatingly wet.

 _If Musa might have been here, she might have made some music out of this rain too,_ Riven's lips curved into a smile at the thought.

"There you are." Riven heard a voice from behind him, startling him. Turning around the specialist's eyes met her cobalt ones.

"God, you gotta stop doing that woman." The hero looked over at Ella with disapproval, a light scowl marring his face. As a trained specialist, Riven's ears were trained to even point out the softest thud around him, but Ella had caught him off guard.

 ** _"Never be off guard. That is how many brave heroes have died_** _. **"**_ For some reason unbeknownst to him, Codatorta's voice, the head teacher at Red Fountain, rang in his ears.

"You did not come to the Single's Night" The girl in front of him stated calmly, not complaining, just saying. And something about her told him that she knew he won't.

"I knew you won't." Riven heard Ella confirm his speculations. Her cobalt eyes locked upon his.

"Just because I am single, doesn't mean that I am ready to mingle." The hero blustered out, loathing the way it sounded on his lips.

 _So am I channeling Brandon now?_ , the burgundy haired specialist wondered, his mind going back to his squad.

"I got busy." Riven added, shoving his hands deep his jeans pocket and giving his shoulders a quick casual shrug.

"I can see that." Ella looked over at Riven, standing all alone in the rain.

"Hey, I did get busy." Riven tried to defend himself with an edge in his voice, noticing for the first time that the receptionist- badge and the maroon jacket with the hotel's logo was missing on Ella.

"Right." Ella just nodded at him calmly. "I got off my shift." The girl informed him, a smile playing on her lips.

"I can see that." The specialist stated flatly, his hands still in his pockets.

"What are you doing here?" Ella asked and the question made him uncomfortable.

 _What am I doing?_ Riven asked himself, not knowing the answer.

"Come on; let's just get out of here. I know a place we can go." The girl murmured all the while grabbing Riven by his arm and dragging him out of his favorite spot, leaving the darkness and view of the city behind.

* * *

Sky switched the call off and shoved the phone inside his pocket. Sighing, the king of Eraklyon abandoned his spot on the balcony to enter his room.

"What did Bloom say?" Helia was the first to speak as Sky barely entered the room. Brandon, Timmy, Helia and Sky were hanging out when Bloom had called him. And by the looks of things it did not seem to be good news. The pacifist looked up at Sky from his place on the floor, waiting for his friend to reply.

"So Musa talked to Riven." Sky stated, his eyes fiddling between his three friends.

"And let me guess, it did not go well?" Brandon asked, his legs crossed at his ankles on the bed he was lounging on.

Sky just shrugged and the heroes instantaneously understood the scenario.

"Is he coming at least?" Timmy questioned, looking over at Sky from his place on the chair in front of his computer desk.

"Well…" The blonde specialist hesitated. "We don't know for sure."

"What do you mean?" Brandon frowned at Sky, not comprehending.

"They did talk right?" Helia spoke this time, wearing the same expression as Brandon.

"They did. But well…let's just say that they did not get to the topic of Earth at all." The king of Eraklyon said, crossing his arms across his torso.

"O-kay?" Timmy replied, nodding with confusion.

"So, should we call him?" Brandon asked, getting up from his bed and towards the night stand.

"Yeah."

After twelve calls from Brandon, nine from Sky, eleven from Helia and thirteen from Timmy, the specialists finally concluded that Riven's phone was actually switched off. Helia tried calling one last time before he glanced over his friends.

"What are we supposed to do now?" The pacifist asked no one in particular.

"Remember the algorithms I had set in everybody's phone to give them info's and locations?" Timmy said, glancing at his friends and met with only dumb-founded looks, while he switched his hand-held computer on, his hands flying by the system keys as he typed some codes in.

"You mean the time you borrowed our phones to do something with them?" Brandon's green eyes squinted in confusion.

"Yes Brandon. Precisely. I actually installed a new programme in our phones. If I could tap that in my system, then it will give me access." The computer nerd stated smugly, a cocky smile playing on his lips.

"Timmy. Too technical." Brandon complained, shaking his head at his friend.

"Translation; I think I can track Riven's phone even when it is switched off." Timmy stated and the smile was heard clearly in his words. "And there! He is Magix city…in…Blue Garden Hotel to be precise." The orange-blonde specialist announced, in a rather conceited way.

"Awesome Timmy." Sky congratulated his friend, leaning over the table to look at the hovering computer screen held in Timmy's hands.

"Well done." Helia said, doing the same as Sky.

"What the hell is he doing in Blue Garden Hotel?" Brandon asked, perplexed at the thought.

"I don't know." Timmy said, matching Brandon's puzzlement.

"So we can go pick him up tomorrow." The king of Eraklyon announced, relief heard clearly in his voice.

"What if he doesn't want to come?" Helia asked the question that arose in everybody's mind. Silence fell between the gang. They did not know what to do to that.

"Then maybe, we will kidnap him." Brandon ended the fleeting silence with his juvenile laughter, closing the topic and hoping that it did not have come to that.

* * *

When he opened his eyes again, darkness engulfed the wizard. All he could see was gloomy darkness, gnawing at him from all the directions. He knew he had to get away from here, he had to survive. Getting up, the wizard heard her voice again and it was a symphony to his ears.

"Nabu" Layla's soft voice whispered, and inadvertently, the wizard started following the voice.

"Layla" Nabu called back with all his strength he had in himself. Desperately searching for the owner of the voice, he tried to follow the small tinge of light at the end of the dark tunnel he was lost in.

"Nabu." The voice seemingly, elevated without a warning, hinting that she was near now.

"Layla." Nabu shouted, screaming till all the oxygen inside his lungs ran out. Nabu literally loathed this place. Where was he anyway?

"Nabu" This time it was a male voice that called him and he immediately recognized it.

"Sky" Nabu cried out, striving to reach the light.

"Come back man" Another voice called after him.

"Brandon?" Nabu asked, but his question just bounced back at him.

"Where are you?" The voice changed, while Nabu strained his feet to keep going.

"Riven, I am here." Nabu called back, desperate for a reply.

"Nabu"

"Helia" Nabu yelled, looking around.

"Nabu. Nabu. Nabu. Nabu." Nabu screamed as all the voices merged together to form a nightmarish chorus, clinging his hands to his ears, the wizard tried to ignore the bleeding pain, desperate to reach the end of the tunnel, enveloped with nothingness. Before light blinded him.

* * *

 **A.N: So where do you guys think Nabu is? Please let me know what you think. And how about Ella? I am starting to kind of like her.**

 **(1) In season six, Episode 3, The flying School, the specialists go to Linphea college for some special training. So I thought of just continuing it.**

 **(2) There really was a weapon named Chakram. I googled it.**

 **(3) In Season 1, Episode 20, Mission to Domino, the squad and the girls go to Domino.**

 **(4) Notice something guys? :P**

 **Anyway, an update coming soon. Peace out!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N:** Now I do know that i haven't updated in a long time but I am back. I assure regular updates now. Its just that I got caught between exams and assignments and all and then One direction just announced their hiatus and I just couldn't open the internet for a while. Anyway, secondly and more importantly I would like to thank all the readers for their patience and for the time they gave to read my fic. And I would also like to thank all the kind people who were kind enough to give reviews. Means a lot to me. Seriously you have no idea :). THANK YOU frooti, sd, AladdinJasmine100, Yasmin, adanethel, behind-the-heart, and all the other readers and guests ( I don't know your name sadly). And everyone else :) SO here is the fourth chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter -4**

Drip. Drip. Drip. The specialist watched as the rain poured down, his eyes glazing over the tiny droplets hitting the ground below him in his dimly lit surroundings. Tightening his grip on the railing of the balcony, he continued to watch the relentless down pour. Wind whooshed across his face, inducing his already cold face to turn even colder. He knew that he should sleep; he knew that he needed it but he also knew that he won't be able to anyway. A shiver ran down the hero's spine as another frosty blow of wind zipped past him. Closing his eyes the specialist strived to wipe off the feeling of dread from his gut. Something was not right. He knew it. It was not a feeling, it was an intuition. Something is wrong. The hero continued to rest against the railing, his arms sprawled over it, his eyes darting across the dark horizons beyond him. Retrieving his phone from his pocket, the specialist gazed over the screen.3:06 am, it gleamed in dark green.

"Brandon!" The specialist turned around at the call of his name.

"Sky, didn't see you there man!" Brandon admitted, while Sky took his place beside him.

"Couldn't sleep either huh?" The king of Eraklyon asked, his blue eyes meeting Brandon's green ones. The squire just gave his shoulders a quick shrug and averted his gaze.

"I just have this feeling that something's…" The green eyed specialist tried to find the right word.

"Wrong?" Sky offered, nodding.

"Yeah!" Brandon exclaimed as another whoosh of wind blew past him. "Glad I am not the only one feeling this way." The squire sounded relieved. The specialists always had this kind of feeling before something horribly bad happened, it was like they knew that the impending danger was near but they did not know when and in what form it will appear. Maybe that is why they called themselves heroes, they could sense danger. This feeling did not have a name to it and it wasn't something that the guys could describe but they just _knew_ that something was wrong.

"Well…I am worried." Sky said, looking over his best friend. Brandon just hmmed and closed his eyes, a frown seen clearly on his forehead. Brandon was usually the kind of guy who always felt that silence must be instantaneously filled with something. Anything. But Sky was one of the few people that Brandon could be silent with, without the silence being awkward at all. They had known each other for so long now that they did always not need words for communication. Brandon gazed at Sky and something flickered in his green eyes and that was enough for Sky to know that Brandon was worried too.

"What do you think it is?" The squire asked, striving to keep the panic away from his voice, his mind rushing back to Stella.

"I don't know." Sky did not like the way his voice sounded, so unsure and lacking confidence.

"Let's just keep our eyes open today during the mission on earth." The green eyed specialist said, his eyes returning to the rain.

* * *

 **(1)** _ **"Dark abyss, I command you, take this challenge, your darkness against the power of light. Submit to the sun's strength."**_ _Layla's ears rang with Nabu's voice, her eyes horrified at the sight in front of her. Right there, stood Nabu with his staff griped tightly in his arms, while the darkness of the dark abyss flew into his staff like a shield of shadows._

" _ **Nabu"**_ _Layla heard a scream escape from her lips. She watched, petrified, while Nabu tried to close the chasm in front of him._

" _ **You won't win. You will not win".**_ _Nabu shrieked at the top of his lungs but his voice was barely heard over all sounds caused due the strong spell he was casting. The chasm was closing but all Layla saw was the color draining away from Nabu, realizing in horror that he was using up all his magical energy at once._

" _ **Aaahh."**_ _Layla shielded her eye with her arms as a deluge of bright light_ _flashed in front of her._ _Strong gusts of howling winds arose and Layla had to make an effort to stay put on the ground._

" _ **Ahh. No, no. May the light triumph."**_ _Nabu screamed, his hands holding his staff firmly to the ground while all the darkness engulfed him like a tunnel. And then everything turned silent. An eerie silence. The chasm was now closed and Layla's cerulean eyes searched frantically for Nabu._

" _ **Nabu!"**_ _Layla shouted, spotting a limp Nabu lying on the ground. Running as fast as her feet allowed, the princess of Andros, kneeled down to where Nabu lay._

" _ **So did it work? Did I do it?"**_ _Nabu asked, his voice barely a whisper as Layla cradled him in her arms._

" _ **You made it my love. You did it."**_ _Layla's voice broke and a hot stream of tear rolled down her cheek. But Layla did not even notice it; all she cared about right now was Nabu._

" _ **Dark magic took his strength."**_ _Layla heard someone say in the background_ _ **."We have to do something right now or it will be too late."**_ _Someone pleaded and Layla realized that it was Tecna._

" _ **Please Nabu, don't give up. Please don't leave me."**_ _Layla cried, her eyes locked on Nabu's violet ones, her vision blurry due to the tears that she couldn't stop from pooling in her eyes._

" _ **I will never leave you Layla, where ever you be, anytime in any world. I will always be with you."**_ _Nabu spoke with an effort and Layla could feel that his heartbeat had slowed down under her hand on his chest. Layla strived to think of something. Any spell. Anything magical. Anything to help Nabu. A new trail of tears rolled down her cheeks._

" _ **These eyes Layla, mustn't cry. I will always love you."**_ _Nabu whispered before his eyes closed and his head rolled down to the ground. And that was it. Layla couldn't stop herself now._ _She buried her face in her hands as tears took over her. With a streak of bright lavender glow, Nabu began hovering above the ground._

" _ **Layla! The black gift, the last gift of destiny from the ethereal fairies. Now is the time to use it."**_ _Layla heard Bloom and a rush of blind hope washed over her being. Nabu could be back. And he will be. With all the strength that Layla did not realize she had in herself, she stood up and gazed toward the gloomy sky up above her._

" _ **Ethereal fairies, I beg of you, please give me the spell of life."**_ _Layla screamed with all her vigor. And an enchanted gleaming ball of blackness, drifted down from the sky. The ethereal fairies, true to their words, had given the last gift of destiny to them. But before Layla could grab hold of it, a dark silhouette appeared in the blue and grasped the magical spell in its fist. Levitating down, Layla realized who it really was. With an evil smirk and dirty red hair flying in the air, stood Ogron with the last gift of destiny clutched in one of his hands._

" _ **Ogron."**_ _Bloom's voice exclaimed in surprise._

" _ **Give it back to me now!"**_ _Layla said in a threatening voice, her voice rising an octave, while her eyes widened and her hands clutched into fists._

" _ **Oops! How careless of me?"**_ _Organ smirked and the smile was heard clearly in his voice. Layla gasped in terror as she watched Ogron drop down the gift of destiny on a dead flower. Miraculously, with a flash of bright light, the flower was reverted back to life with full bloom._

" _ **I used the gift of destiny to give back life to this small flower."**_ _Ogron's lips curved into a malicious grin. Layla screamed with all the pain she had and kneeled down to the ground for support._

" _ **Such a waste. Well, well."**_ _And with that, the leader of the wizards of the black circle disappeared._

"NO!" Layla woke up with sweat and rage. Her eyes registering the dorm she was in and her hands were clutching a pillow with heated strength. She was back in her room at Alfea, safe and sound, away from Ogron and the wizards of the dark circle and away from her horrendous nightmare. Layla continued to look around, listening to the faint sound of the splatter of rain drops against the roof. Blinking, the fairy of waves gulped down a lump that was threatening to form in her throat. It had been awhile since the princess had this kind of dream. Nabu's memories came rushing back to the surface and a fresh trail of tears rolled down from her cheeks. Springing to her feet, the fairy decided to take a walk, making a beeline for the dorm's door. Layla covered the distance in a few strides and walked out the door in a slow, deliberate manner, noticing that it was still a bit dark outside, nearer to breaking dawn. Tip- toeing through the corridors, the princess of Andros made no delay to walk out into the rain, towards the wishing well all the while, letting the memories haunt her.

* * *

Helia hurried down the hall, watching the lights on the roof above him change from mid night blue to daylight yellow, indicating that it was day now. Reaching his destination, the specialist gave a firm knock on the door.

"Mind, putting _that_ away right now Brandon." The pacifist heard Sky's voice on the other side and it rather sounded irritated.

"It is a Chakram Sky. A _Chakram_. Is it that hard to pronounce?" Brandon exclaimed. Helia, annoyed, banged on the door once again.

"Open up guys. We are already late." Helia said in a put off tone. Some noises were heard and then the door opened to reveal Timmy standing in the doorframe.

"Nex said he will meet us at Alfea. You guys ready?" The black haired specialist asked, stepping inside the room and looking around, he exchanged a disapproving look with Timmy.

"Well…" Timmy trailed off, glancing over at Sky and Brandon, who at moment were deep in a debate which was anything but sensible.

"It can be called a metal ring too, man." The king of Eraklyon said with suppressed heat in his voice.

"Ah-no. Its ancient name is Chakram." The squire countered with a cocky grin, a sheepish look stretched on his face, the weapon gripped tightly in his fist.

"Look, maybe…" Whatever Sky wanted to say was cut off when Helia grabbed him with his laser strings.

"Enough guys. We can discuss that later." Timmy was quick to speak, while Sky tried to disentangle himself.

"You know, for a pacifist, you use a lot of violence." Timmy smiled and Brandon's face mirrored his expression.

"So technically, you are a pacifist, who, in a very obvious way, uses violence for…anti-violent reasons?" The squire smirked at the thought, folding his arms across his chest with the Chakram still held limply in his hand.

"Well…" Helia muttered, loosening a bit of his string's grip on Sky.

"Fine." Sky groaned giving up, as Helia's lips curved into a smile and he let him go with a quick flick of his wrist.

"Where's Nex?" Brandon asked no one in particular, putting the Chakram in his hands carefully on his bed.

"He will meet us at Alfea. Now let's keep going before the girls decide to go to Earth without us. We have to pick Riven too." Timmy said, striving to keep the worry to himself. They still had no idea about Riven's plans and just rushing there and picking him up for a mission sounded too…easy. And if you knew Riven, which he did, something told him that it would take a lot more than showing up to convince him. Riven had never been the convincible kind. Never. As they pranced down the hallway, Timmy glanced over his friends and the worried look on their faces were hard to get unnoticed.

"But before that, breakfast." Brandon said, veering towards the cafeteria.

* * *

Putting his hand in front of his face, Riven tried to block some of the sunlight that was coming through his room's window. Moaning, the hero abandoned the idea of staying in the bed for any longer and got up. Inadvertently, the specialist's violet eyes fluttered towards his bed-side clock. 10:03 A.M, it showed in its angry green dotted light. His feet, without his knowledge moved mechanically towards the window. Crossing his arms across his chest, the hero looked out while his eyes strived to adjust to the bright light outside. Every muscle in Riven's body tried to resist the pain in his head.

 _Yesterday night was…_

The magenta haired hero let the thought hang mid-way. Not knowing what yesterday night was himself.

… _useless…fruitless…a waste of time._

The hero settled on 'a waste of time'. Yesterday night was nothing but a waste of time for him. All they did was go to some local restaurant and bar. He did not even remember the name of the place and frankly he did not even care. Ya, they did get drunk and talked (well she talked anyway) but he did not feel anything. Nothing. No spark. Absolutely nothing. Riven's forehead creased as he wondered if he _did not feel anything_ or _did not let himself feel anything._ The truth was there was nothing was wrong with Ella, she was a fine girl, it was him. If only Musa could just get out of his head.

"Damn that pixie." The words escaped the hero's lips before he even knew it. His eyes darted across the horizon and something caught his eyes. It was a ship. A red fountain ship. A smirk flashed across his face as his eyes crinkled with amusement.

"Huh, this will be interesting."

* * *

(1) This scene is from season 4 of the show. The last scene where Nabu was seen alive. :(

Now I do realize that nothing much happened in this chapter but I wanted this one to be short because the next chapter is going to be pretty big. SO anyway I am already working on the next chapter and it will be up by this weekend I guess. Until then please to let me know what you guys think about the story and plot. Anything you want to add in this or how you imagine it will go on or pretty much anything you want to tell me please PM me or leave a review. Stay tuned for the next chapter, I am really excited about it, it's kinda special to me, thats when Nabu meets the gang and its a reunion and all. AND I won't stop writing, don't worry. Peace out!


	5. Chapter 5

_AN: Soo am really sorry that I couldn't upload earlier and I know that it's been awhile but am really looking forward to complete this fic by June. Soo please corporate, I know that am not good at keeping promises but I am gonna try my best. And for those of you who have forgotten, Nebula is the current Queen of earth fairies at the moment. Just until the coronation of Roxy. Morgana is the former Queen of earth fairies, who gave up the crown to have a normal life with Roxy and her dad and Tir Nan Og is the palace of the earth fairies, it's supposed to be somewhere in Ireland. So without further ado, here is the 5th chapter. Hope you guys enjoy it! Peace out!  
_

 **Chapter -5**

Drip. Drip. Drip. The rain splatteted down relentlessly, drenching the Queen of earth fairies. Nebula's eyes peered at the majestic green stone. The sun shone bright, inducing the stone to look like an emerald. Even if it wasn't noticeable right now, Nebula knew that the stone was losing its color. Its light. Fading.

"Its magic…its…" Nebula heard Morgana whisper, standing by her side.

"Getting released." Nebula offered.

"Yes it is." Morgana nodded, her forehead creasing as she frowned.

"We need to stop _him_."

"We are gonna need the winx." Morgana stated simply, not bothering to look at Nebula.

"They will be here soon." Nebula said, her eyes burning holes into the shimmering stone in front of her.

"I hope so." The former queen of earth fairies said. Morgana knew the winx would come, but she couldn't help but feel fidgety and anxious. After _his_ rise, things had gotten a bit sticky. And bad. And disastrous.

"I am worried about the other stones."

Nebula whispered, her voice seeming lower than usual, the rain tuning her voice out.

"Me too." Morgana's voice shook with anxiety.

" _He_ wasn't supposed to break the spell."

"No one was supposed to." Morgana's eyes squinted at the stone in front of frowned at her response, expecting something more aggressive and feverent. It was raining cats and dogs and Morgana knew that it wasn't supposed to. It never rained at this time of the month. The sun was supposed to reign the now overcast sky. But instead the sun shone whilst it poured down, making the environment, if anything, even more ridiculously haunting. And only _he_ was responsible for it all.

 _"He_ will be stopped." Morgana says dismissively, turning around towards the castle and away from the rain. And the stone.

* * *

"Sooo…its going to be great. Since it won't be raining on earth and well…I am really looking forward for some sunshine." Brandon heard Stella squeal with delight over the phone.

"What if it was?" The squire's green eyes wandered towards the window, he watched as huge raindrops splattered on the glass of the ship.

"Now, why would you say that? Dont jinx it Brandon." Stella's honey-like voice was tinted with annoyance.

"Um…not trying to upset you babe but Timmy just looked up in his com…" There was no need for the hero to finish his sentence because Stella had already caught the drift of it.

"Nooo….nooo…" Stella whined in a childish voice and the squire could literally picture her pouting right now, her magical golden eyes squinting. The image made him smile as a feeling of warmth washed over him.

"Yes…" Brandon tried not to laugh as he heard another whine over the line.

"Huh…I hate my life. Well, did you guys see Riven at least?"

"Nah, we have just landed. Now I'll see ya babe. Okay? I gotta go kidnap someone who is really feisty _and_ stubborn." Brandon let out a chuckle and Sky, who was sitting in the controller chair beside him grunted.

"Bye snookums." Stella laughed before hanging up.

"No one is kidnapping anyone Brandon." Sky shook his head in disapproval.

"It was a joke." The green eyed hero sighed.

"Well, I expect you to be serious right now." The King of Eraklyon said, his tone made sure to show that he meant it.

"We all do." Timmy agreed, abandoning his controller chair.

"So whats the plan?" Helia spoke, taking his place beside Timmy. The dark haired hero looked at Sky in favour of Brandon, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Easy peasy. We will walk in and I'll charm him with my talk, all the while distracting him, then you guys snoop in and…ow!" The brunette was interrupted by a hard smack on his head. The squire looked at the culprit, who just peered at him with his blue eyes clouded with disbelief.

"And what? Kidnap him?" Sky's eyebrows flew up.

"What was that for? Ow…" Brandon glared at Sky, his hand inadvertently rubbing his skull.

"For _you_ being an idiot." Sky stated, shaking his head and crossing his arms across his torso.

"And charm him? Are you sure you are talking about Riven?" Timmy's voice sounded amused.

"I am really good at distracting people." Brandon murmured smugly.

"No, you are good at _getting_ distracted. There is a huge difference. Now, let's get serious guys. What's the plan?" Helia said, his voice strained. A few yeahs and a grunt (from Brandon) was heard and for a moment no one talked. The sound of rain took over the space as everyone strived to think of something. Anything.

"Well there is no plan. We will just go in and talk I guess." Sky broke the silence.

"So we will just what…knock on his door and wait for him to let us in his room?" Brandon asked. His voice marred with disbelief.

"Hmm…" Helia and Timmy nodded.

"Yes. Exactly." The blue eyed hero glanced over his squire before pushing himself off the chair.

"And what makes you think he will? Let us in I mean." Brandon's eyes met Sky's for a brief minute. Sky was tensed, he was sure of that but who wasn't right now?

"And what makes you think he won't?" Sky shot back, getting impatient.

"Fair enough." The green eyed specialist nodded before making a beeline towards the already open door of the ship.

* * *

"I wish I could come you know? I want to be there for you." Nex said, tightening his hand around Layla's. The couple continued walking towards the wishing well, leaving behind the warm and well-lit building of Alfea, not minding the rain that poured down around them.

"I know. But I'll be fine." The princess of Andros whispered back, her turquoise eyes meeting his light hazel ones. Nex loved when she looked at him that way, her eyes seeing him. Just him. He swear he couldn't tear his eyes away from hers even if Alfea flooded all of a sudden. After all that the winx and the specialists had seen, the idea of a flood in Alfea did not seem impossible, even is it was far away from any enormous water body. But nothing was impossible. Was it? In a world where fairies and witches existed, a place full of magic and sorcery, a flood seemed too simple. Too ordinary. The paladin continued staring into her eyes. Those beautifully warm turquoise eyes. Too lost in them to see a pebble in the path and tripping over it to fall flat on to the ground and into a gigantic puddle of water. A small laugh escaped the fairy's lips as Nex scrunched his nose in disgust.

"Ughh…"

"Here…" Said Layla, offering her hand and Nex gladly took it and she hauled him up as he shook his head, striving to get some water out of his hair, trying hard to make it look sexy. Too hard because he ended up looking more like a dog. Another laugh was heard from Layla as she gazed at her boyfriend.

"Stop it." Layla complained, her hands shielding her face from the drops of water in Nex's hair.

"Oh…you dont like that?" Nex frowned as he moved a step closer to her to shake some more water out of his hair, banging their heads in the process.

"Nex..." Layla sounded annoyed but smiled at him. Their eyes met once again and Nex wrapped one of his hands around her waist and pushed a strand of her dark brown hair behind her ear with the other. Layla closed her eyes and Nex leaned in, closing the gap in between. His lips met hers and a shiver ran down his spine as the rain persisted pouring down. But he was pretty sure that the shiver wasn't because he was cold. His hands tightened around her waist, pulling her closer. Layla smiled into the kiss, her hands cemented to his neck, leaning in closer, if possible, to deepen the kiss.

"I am crazy about you." Nex smirked, parting away from Layla, both of them gasping for breath. To this she just smiled, not knowing what to say. The fairy was never good at this. Pulling Nex closer by his shirt, Layla crashed her lips to his and Nex did not complain.

* * *

Another splash of cold water across his face wasn't enough to wake the magenta haired hero up. His eyes looked up into the mirror in front to see a very exhausted guy that he barely recognised. There were bags under his eyes and his head was about to implode any minute now. Touching his head, the specialist winced as pain washed over him. Waking up with a headache was the last thing the hero needed right now. A bad one at that. The violet eyed specialist cupped his hands with water and splashed it over his face yet again, hoping to lessen the uneasiness. Nothing. Except that his white tank top was if anything, a little more wet now. Sighing, he gave up and started for the bathroom door. Even if he wouldn't admit it, he was hungry. A lot hungry actually. Slopping down on his bed, he pressed the Levi room service button at his bed stand.

"How can I help you?" A brunette's face appeared in a hovering screen, one he did not recognize.

"I would like to order food." He whispered.

"May I take your order, Mr…?"

"Riven. Just Riven." The hero nodded.

"Riven." The girl said, giving a cheeky smile.

"Yeah just bring today's breakfast special." Riven said dismissively.

"Anything else?"

"No." Riven pursed his lips before disconnecting the call. All that he remembered from last night was that he had drank his heart out and there was Ella…if only his head would stop reeling. His amethyst eyes glanced over at the bed side alarm clock. **10:34 A.M.** it read in bright angry dots.

 _They will be here any minute now_. Riven couldn't help but wonder what they wanted. Rolling over, the hero lay on his back on the bed. Closing his eyes for a moment.

 _God knows where Ella is_.

A knock was heard on his door. A good hard knock, demanding attention. The hero's eyes flew open and he stretched his arms, dangling his legs from the bed's side before getting up.

Another knock.

The specialist ambled towards the hall, no rush.

Knock.

Casually, Riven reached for the door knob before flicking it and opening the door. And standing right there was his squad. Sky, Brandon, Helia and Timmy. A hug? A brofist? A smile? Riven did not know what to do and before he could Sky barged inside the room and engulfed him in a hug, making it easier for Riven. The magenta haired hero hugged him back. And soon enough Timmy, Brandon and Helia had joined in. No one talked. There was no need of words right now anyway. Riven had missed them all and by the looks of it, they had too. Silence settled in as no one spoke. Not the awkward kind. Just silence as everyone parted away from the group hug.

"How are you?" Timmy was the first to speak. To that Riven just shrugged, and spread both his arms to shoulder level, as in 'see for yourself'. The spectatled hero smiled, pushing his glasses back on his nose.

"We have got a lot to talk about." Helia says and Riven just nods towards a comfy beige sofa, signalling them to sit.

* * *

Nabu tried to catch his breath as streaks of sweat covered his whole face, his legs running, not giving in. The wizard was not going to stop now, he won't let himself. The voices seemed to know exactly where he was headed and followed him, as if they will never let him go.

"Nabu. Nabu. Nabu. Nabu. Nabu. Nabu."

"Noooo…" Screamed Nabu at the top of his lungs, his lips dry and his throat choked.

Engulfed by nothingness, the wizard looked around. Nothing but just darkness, an icy cold silence except for the voices, shrieked at him from all the four directions. The wizard did not mind the darkness that much, if only there was something else here too. Anything at all. The place seemed to just stretch on endlessly, never ending. Gasping for breath, Nabu halted to catch his breath, one of his hand clutching his chest and the other grasping his head. Closing his eyes for a moment, Nabu tried to tune the voices out, standing up right.

"Nabu. Nabu. Nabu. Nabu. Nabu."

With another deep breath, the hero started walking again. Something told him that he should keep moving at the very least. The stillness of this hellhole was too much to bear, if he stopped for too long, he may never be able to start again.

"Hello?" The wizard called out as his legs continued walking.

"You people never shut up, do you?" Frowned Nabu, folding his arms across his chest as his dark eyes scanned the horizon, the voices still whispering in the background.

"What's that?" Nabu asked no one in particular and frowned yet again when he realised that he was talking to himself. Right in front of him at the very end was a hovering light, bright and white, resembling a beacon.

"What shall I do?" Nabu quiered and cursed under his breath, he in fact _was_ talking to himself.

"Come here Nabu. Please." Nabu's ears registered a voice. This voice was different than the others, softer. It did not scream at him like they did. To the wizard's surprise, slowly but surely the voices started to wane, fading into nothingness. After awhile all he could hear was the sound of his own footsteps and the silence that hugged him was like a symphony to his ears. Nabu's lips curved into a smile, a genuine one as he paced towards the light.

"Good. You are just there." The voice whispered reassuringly. Nabu took another step towards the light before everything turned black.

* * *

Riven just frowned. What else could he do? Timmy shook his head at him once again before calmly repeating what he had just said. After all the 'how you been' and goofy grins from Brandon, 'what have you been up to' from Sky, a very serious 'how are you' from Helia, a genuine 'Missed you' from Timmy and a few blunt nods and sneaky answers from Riven, the specialists had moved on to the main reason they were here. Sure they had a lot of catching up to do but they could do that on the ship.

"A message was sent to the winx by Nebula and we are needed there as soon as possible. She has asked everyone, including you to be there." The spectacled hero said, gazing at Riven closely. Four pairs of eyes settled on Riven and he fidgeted under their gaze before letting out a weak snarl at Timmy, not in an aggressive but more in a _Riven_ way.

"I can speak English Tim, I am pretty sure I understood what you said for the first time." The magenta haired specialist nodded, his hands folded snugly around his torso and he leaned his head on the wall beside him, opting to stand while the squad sat in front of him on the sofa.

"Did she say what was wrong on that planet at least?" Riven continued.

"No." Helia stated simply.

"Huh." Riven grunted.

"Look we understand if you don't want to come and we respect your -" Sky was cut short by Riven.

"Who all are coming?" Riven squinted. Sky had always been the polite one, the one with all the princely manners, the goodie-goodie one and Riven never got along with Sky when he got too formal for his taste.

"Us and the winx." Brandon said, his eyes not leaving Riven.

"Musa too?" Riven asked, his voice softening a bit. Something indecipherable crossed across his features. Hope it must be, concluded the squire. The boys exchanged uncomfortable looks.

"Yes." Timmy let out a half smile.

"Uh huh." The magenta hero said in a rather dry voice, his thoughts being interrupted by the door bell.

 _Ain't the room service fast here?_ Riven thought sarcastically before he paced towards the door.

The server was a boy, dark haired and did not linger around after he left the food on a table in the hall. For some inexplicable reason, Riven was sure that it would be Ella standing in the doorway and not some random guy.

"So when are we leaving?" The violet eyed specialist asked, reaching for the plate of food.

"You are coming?" Brandon sounded surprised, his green eyes meeting Riven's amethyst ones for a brief second. To that Riven just gave Brandon a 'why not' look and shrugged, shoving a spoonful of whatever was on the plate in his mouth, not bothering for the dish's name.

"Huh, that was easy." Brandon grinned.

"Are you implying something?" Riven's eyebrows flew up to his temples, his arms crossed across his chest.

"Nah dude." Brandon continued grinning like an idiot, knowing too well how much Riven hated it. Truth to be spoken, Riven missed being a specialist. A hero. But it wasn't like he was gonna say that out loud. Sky looked pleased, a smile flashed across his face and the others pretty much felt the same way.

"Let me just get my uniform." Smirked Riven, turning away from the squad, all the while shaking his head at Brandon.

"Hey Riven?" Timmy called back.

"Yeah?" The magenta haired hero asked, not spinning around.

"You know we missed you right?"

"I do." Riven said before walking away towards the bathroom. And thats when it hit him, how much he actually had missed his squad. His band of brothers. As Riven walked in, the hero heard a small squeal from the room.

"Look at that remote control will ya?" Tim's voice whispered and Riven smiled inspite of himself.

* * *

"He's waking up." Nebula heard one of the fairies shout and that was her que to leave the crystal ball.

"Finally." Morgana smiled as she gently stroked Nabu's forehead, restoring a bit of his energy.

"Noo." The wizard woke up in a fit of rage, his face dripping with sweat.

"Nabu. Welcome back, brave one." Nebula nodded at him, her voice tinted with reverence. The Queen of the earth fairies always had this respect for Nabu and his sacrifice, if it wasn't for him, the wizards would have taken over the magic realm. The first thing that Nabu noticed was that he was surrounded, no, literally mobbed by fairies. Half of them were healers he supposed. And the second and the more important thing was that, there was no darkness around, no nothingness. Nabu smiled before the pain took over him.

"Aah…" Nabu gasped, his hands instantaneously clutching his head as another throb of pain washed over him.

"He's still weak." The wizard heard someone whipser and a pair of hand touched his head, inducing the pain to decrease.

"You will be fine after some rest." Someone said but everything was getting blurred.

"Drink this." A voice ordered and Nabu did not hesitate to obey, grasping the mud-glass in his hand and swiging the liquid down his throat. It left a vile taste in his mouth and he licked his lips before pursing them together while the ache slowly disappeared. Gone as if it never had come.

"How are you?" Morgana's eyes met Nabu's as she studied him carefully. The wizard frowned at her, perplexed.

"I am Morgana."

"Uhh...where am I?" Nabu was quick to ask, still confused.

"At Tir Nan Og." Morgana gave him a warm smile.

"The wizards of the dark circle...I have to stop...them." Nabu gasped for breath. For some reason unbeknownst to the wizard, he felt drained of his powers. Weak. Weak enough to stop for breath in the middle of a sentence.

"They are in the Omega Dimension. They are taken care of. You just relax." Nebula muttered, her voice clouded with disease and the expression on her face just intensified the fact that she genuinely was worried.

"Where is everyone? Where's...Layla?"

"They are on their way."

"What happened?" Nabu grasped his head again and regretted it immediately, wincing in pain.

"Let's heal you first shall we?" Morgana looked at him and Nabu just nodded.

"I remember running away. From the...voices. It was horrifying." Nabu whispered as Morgana and some other fairies started spraying some kind of liquid at him.

"And what else do you remember?" Nebula asked, a crystal ball in her hand.

"Darkness." The wizard's voice was barely above a whisper.

"All due to the spell." The Queen of the earth fairies sighed.

"Indeed." Morgana agreed whilst she continued sprinkling some liquid on him.

"Which spell?" Nabu frowned, a feeling of relief erupted inside him. Whatever that liquid was, it was working.

"This is healing water from the white fountain." One of the fairies informed Nabu, seeing him eye the sprinkler in her hand.

"A spell." Nabu heard Morgana say in a serious kind of tone hinting towards a long, protracted speech.

"Every spell, Nabu, has a side effect that comes along with it. They are inseprable. You can't have one without the other." Morgana continued.

"Spells that we use are white and pure and usually result in no or a very little side effect, if any, and they go unnoticed by most of us." Morgana has Nabu's full fledged attention right now. The fairies had stopped with the sprinkling and were starting to disperse, leaving Morgana, Nebula and Nabu alone.

"But spells which are darker have an even darker side effect. And they are not instant at all. They may sometimes even last upto centuries and they don't just come into effect right after the spell, it may sometimes even take years to trigger them. When the wizards of the dark circles opened the vortex, they used a very dark spell, one of the darkest of all time. You stopped it. Somehow triggering the side effect right away and getting stuck in the black dimension." Morgana gazed at Nabu once again.

"The black dimension?"

"Yes, the black dimension. The place that triggers the side effect. A literal hell if you will." Nebula said and the guilt was heard loud and clear in her voice.

"You really are brave _and_ strong, you survived the black dimension and all the black magic, all because of your heart." Nebula smiled at the wizard who looked even more confused now.

"My heart?"

"Yes, and that is why you are drained of all your powers. It drained every ounce of your power, making you weak physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and magically." Morgana whispered in a hush.

"How long…?" Nabu did not finish the question. None of this was making sense.

"Two years." Morgana let that hang in the air for a moment as silence settled in between them all.

"TWO YEARS?!" Something about that made the hero angry. He had wasted away two years of his life? When everyone moved on and he was in some kind of coma?!

"It's called the dark sleep." Nebula murmured, as if reading his mind.

"Oh...how much you must have suffered." Morgana whispered, her voice tainted with pity.

"You have no idea how thankful we are for your sacrifice Nabu. Really." Nebula smiled.

"I want to see Layla. All my friends. Riven, Sky, Helia, Brandon, Timmy. The winx. Right now." Nabu demanded with an edge in his voice.

"They are on their way." Nebula reassured him, noticing how droopy his eyes had gotten after all the screaming. He was gonna pass out any minute now.

"Please rest for now, young wizard." Morgana said, watching as Nabu closed his eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

_Let's_ _dive right in shall we?_

 **Chapter** **\- 6**

Drip. Drip. Drip. Morgana heard the relentless splatter of the raindrops on the window. The weather had not changed one bit. If anything, it had worsened. And Morgana knew that it was going to get even worse. It hurt her to just sit around and do nothing while _he_ just roamed the earth freely. A deep feeling of unease had settled in her stomach, she could feel her home planet getting destroyed yet again. It had caught her and all the terrestrial fairies by surprise when _he_ had survived. She, like the other had presumed that _he_ had gone for good. That they had all bid him good riddance but apparently that wasn't the case. The former Queen's eyes drifted towards the wizard sleeping soundlessly in front of her. Oh, bless that young man, if it wasn't for him, then all the four of _them_ would have been alive. Morgana watched as Ciara, a healer walked in the with a sprinkler in her hand. Nabu was strong. But no one was strong enough to survive the black dimension. He was weak too right now, in fact very weak and needed a regular sprinkle of the healing water.

"He won't be able to walk for a couple of weeks, will he?" Nebula's voice rang in Morgana's ears.

"No he won't." Morgana whispered in a hush, her eyes not leaving Nabu. A feeling of guilt washed over both of them. He did not deserve all this.

"He's the first man to walk out alive from the black dimension." Nebula said and smiled.

"Indeed he is." Morgana said. Ciara was leaving now, being done with the sprinkling.

"The 'I- stone' has lost it's shine. I have just seen it. This all needs to be stopped before _he_ gets any stronger." Nebula peered at Morgana, and the former Queen just frowned at that, not knowing what else to say.

"You know that we are helpless and the winx are our only chance." Morgana finally said, sighing.

"Yes but..."

"They have stopped _him_ once, they will stop him again." The former Queen of earth fairies said, abandoning her place at the stool to check on Nabu.

* * *

The sun shone bright high above in the sky. For once, it wasn't raining in Magix. The day the weather got better, much to the squad's disbelief, they had to go to a place where the weather was nothing but miserable. Timmy had seen the weather forecast of the planet and the boys weren't excited when they had found out what it was like.

"I am taking the main control. It's been awhile since I last handled one of those babies." Riven announced, nodding towards the Red Fountain ship in front of him as they all made their way towards it.

"Cool, your call man." Brandon said. The specialists, all in their uniforms paced towards the ship as it's automated grand door opened to welcome them all in. Looking around the ship, the magenta haired hero grinned, noticing all the updates and changes that were made in it since the last time he was in it. Letting out a low whistle the amethyst eyed specialist moved towards the new gear room. New weapons, new gears, new interior and new Levi bikes. Riven grinned even wider, his eyes scanning the new, untouched maroon levi bike in the corner. It was sleek. His fingers grazed the bikes seat and he smirked at the silver lines on it that looped in on themselves to give a very intricate design of a burning, smoking, silver coloured fire.

"It's yours." Riven heard Sky say from somewhere behind. If there was one thing the violet eyed hero enjoyed, it was a bike. Any bike will do. He always had this passion for them, this inexplicable desire to ride them, modify them, fix them or just gawk at them for that matter. He swore he could look at this beauty all day.

"Woah, looks like Riven's in love." Brandon hooted under his breath and a few laughs were heard. Riven turned around, wanting to scowl at the green eyed hero but grinned in spite of himself. Maybe he was.

"There's a new updated tool kit, just in that closet behind you. You can modify this..." Timmy nodded at the maroon beauty, "anytime you want." The spectacled specialist smiled.

"Oh and I will." Riven smirked, turning around towards the controller's pit.

"Let's start this thing up now, shall we?" The magenta haired hero smiled, walking towards the main control.

* * *

"They are on their way, Sky just called." Bloom announced, her phone held tight in her hand. Everyone was sprawled on the benches that Alfea's beautiful garden had on offer.

"And they have got Riven." The keeper of the dragon flame said, answering the question held in everyone's eyes, her blue eyes purposefully averting Musa's gaze. Musa had made it clear that she needed some alone time right now. She had been distant ever since she had spoken with Riven. Jared had just left as he had an assignment in Red Fountain, saying his goodbyes and good lucks and Musa was sitting all alone on a bench right now, her hands folded on her lap. The fairy of music looked up as Bloom approached her, taking the vacant place on the bench beside her.

"How are you doing, Musa?" The princess of Domino whispered, her blue eyes locked with Musa's azure ones.

"I am fine." The songstress shrugged, giving her shoulders a quick raise.

"So he's coming ain't he?" Musa's voice was blank, her face bereft of any emotion. The keeper of the dragon fire looked closely at her friend and Musa just stared back. Something flickered in her eyes and Bloom struggled to read it.

"Yeah he is." Bloom whispered and a tingly feeling washed over Musa's entire being. Three months it had been and Riven still had this...control over her. He made her feel...Musa couldn't even name whatever feeling it was. No one had made her feel this way since him and the singer wondered if someone ever will. A smile flashed across the fairy of music's face and Bloom couldn't help but smile back. Jared was a safe bet. He was a trainee teacher too now and was under the training of Helia actually. He smiled a lot and tried to be happy and more importantly he tried making _her_ happy. And frankly any girl would be lucky to have him. But to be more frank, Musa wasn't just any girl. And no matter what Jared did, she just couldn't _feel it_. Whatever it was that she felt for Riven. All of this for the simple fact that Jared was not...Riven. Both of them, Jared and Riven, were like oil and water. And the sane choice, the safe choice, Musa knew, was Jared. But well, Musa never made sane choices any way.

 _Do I even have a choice anymore?_ The songstress wondered.

"I have missed him." Musa whispered, realising too late what she had said, her Navy blue eyes going wide. Bloom just smiled at that.

"We all have." The princess of Domino said truthfully, wondering what it had been like for Musa if it was this hard for the rest of them. A bright smile flashed across Musa's face as Bloom mirrored it.

"When..." The songstress frowned at her friend, not feeling the need to finish her sentence.

"They'll be here any minute n -" Bloom's voice was cut short by the sound of the Red Fountain ship. The sound was loud enough to announce their arrival before hand. Buying sometime for Musa as she looked up at it in anticipation and felt her heart skip a beat or two.

* * *

"They are here." Layla's voice rang in Nex's ears. The couple's favourite hang-out place was near the wishing well and that's where they were right now. Layla's hand grasped Nex's as she lead him towards the entrance of the school and the paladin let her.

"You think Riven's in there?" The hero questioned while both of them continued strolling towards the gate.

"He better be." That's all the princess of Andros said as they reached the entrance and joined the winx, who were already there, all of their eyes on the ship while they waited for it to land.

"So when will I see you again?" Nex queried, giving Layla's hand a quick squeeze.

"Well, that depends." Layla said, squeezing his hand back.

"Depends on what?" Nex frowned.

"Depends on how big the problem is, Nex."

"Huh..." The paladin grunted.

"Hey, I'll be back as soon as it's over."

Nex smiled as a his phone's ringtone went off, his hands reflexively reached for his pocket as he pulled out the phone.

"Hey it's Ella."

"Ella?" Layla looked up at Nex in surprise, not recognising the name.

"Your sister right?" Layla asked, remembering.

"Yeah." Nex hit the 'attend' button as a hovering image of Ella appeared, excusing himself to the side, Nex smiled at his sister.

* * *

"Alright, initiating landing." Helia said, his hands on the controller.

"Landing in progression." Riven's violet eyes looked down at the screen. Everyone was there. Stella, Bloom, Flora, Tecna, Layla, Nex and...her. Musa. Of course she was there. Three months it had been and Musa still had this...control over him. The magenta haired hero tried to control his heart beat but his heart had a mind of it's own now, beating as if he was in a Marathon or something.

"And we are here." Sky announced while the automated door of the ship began opening.

Riven looked around. Alfea. It still had that warm, welcoming vibe to it. The grand doors open. The radiant glow of the school was still there. He had spent a lot time here, the hero remembered. From the starter mixer of sophomore year to...well, till the last time he was here, there had been a lot of memories. A lot. Good ones and bad ones. He remembered fighting the Trix here, dancing with Musa, graduation, his first kiss with Musa. All of that had happened here. When come to think of it, Alfea will always be a part of him.

"Are you coming out or are you just gonna keep looking at her on the screen?" Brandon's voice snapped the violet eyed specialist out of his thoughts, realizing that he was staring, no literally gawking at the screen in front of him.

"Huh..." Muttered Riven under his breath. "Yeah...coming."

The squire looked at Riven, amused, as the amethyst eyed hero ambled out of the controller's pit.

"Stalling?" The green eyed hero challenged.

"Don't wanna hurt you before a mission, but you are leaving me no choice." Riven muttered under his breath before walking out of the ship. A guffaw was heard from the ship and Riven just shook his head. The next thing Riven knew was that he was surrounded, all the girls squishing him into a group hug.

"Riven." The girls squealed in delight and Riven just smiled.

"We have missed you so much!" Exclaimed Bloom as she engulfed him into another bear hug, almost causing the hero to trip. The specialist let out a laugh, hugging her back.

"What's up with your hairstyle?" The princess of Solaria frowned but her lips broke into a smile.

"Stella, you haven't changed, have you?" Riven smirked as Stella gave him a tight hug.

"Neither have you." Stella laughed.

"Riven." Tecna grinned before giving him a small hug.

"Hey." Flora grinned, her soft green eyes meeting Riven's violet ones and the hero returned her smile.

"Looking good." Layla nodded at him, offering her fist to him.

"Nex." The magenta haired hero nodded at him.

"Riven." The paladin nodded back.

And then Riven's eyes landed on her. Her dark hair was tied back into a high ponytail, a red T-shirt hugging her torso and she sported a Jeans short, flaunting her long legs. And just like that, Riven had lost his breath. Musa looked beautiful as she stood there, in front of him. Her azure eyes met his amethyst ones.

"Riven." Musa breathed, her eyes not leaving his.

"Musa."

She went in for a hug and he went in for a hand shake. Talk about awkward. Then the two just settled for a brief hug before parting away. And then nothing. Silence. Awkward silence.

"Yeah...so um...you all need to come to the ship. We have these newly installed...um..." Brandon struggled for a word, his eyes looking at Timmy, pleading for some help. Timmy Rose his eyebrows.

"Newly installed wallpaper." Brandon nodded, folding his arms across his chest.

"Seriously Brandon?Wallpaper?" Musa gazed at the squire, trying to stifle a giggle.

"Couldn't have thought of anything else?" Sky whispered at the green eyed hero and Brandon resisted an urge to tackle him.

"Hey, what do you know?" The squire protested. "You tell them Timmy."

"Ya...um they..." Timmy stuttered.

"You know what, we will leave you guys alone." Flora came in for the rescue. Riven was shaking his head in disbelief. The specialist watched as the group left, strolling away towards the ship, leaving Musa and him behind.

"Forgot how dumb he is." The hero locked eyes with Musa again, referring to Brandon.

"Yeah, well, that's Brandon." Musa laughed.

"How is...um...everything?," Riven whispered, gazing at his shoes in favour of Musa, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Fine...how are you?" The songstress asked, her voice sounding genuine.

"I survive." Riven nodded. "And you?"

"Am good...actually." Musa nodded back.

Every muscle in Riven's body was screaming at him to kiss her, to scoop her in his arms. Flustered, the hero pursed his lips, resisting the urge to just crash his lips to hers already.

"How's Jared?" The specialist blurted out, scowling, averting his gaze from her, his hands balling into fists by his sides. That caught Musa off guard, ignoring the question she started towards the ship and Riven lingered behind, watching as she left, his hands still in his pockets.

"He's great." The fairy of music called back, not bothering to turn around. Sighing, the specialist followed her. Silence settled in between them as Riven caught up with Musa's pace with ease and soon enough it was Musa who was lagging behind while Riven continued striding towards the ship. No one spoke, none of them knowing what to say. Musa decided to stay behind him, it was better to have his back facing her anyway. The magenta haired specialist walked on, hearing a sigh from behind. Or maybe it was just his imagination. Who knows.

* * *

The wizard's hands tightened on the rim of the window, his dark eyes looking over at the sheet of rain, the large raindrops splattering on the glass, while the sun shone. The magical staff in his hand. Held tight around his fingers, where it belonged. Nebula had just given it to him right now. The young wizard knew that he must be resting. Relaxing. Healing. But he couldn't just sit around. He wanted answers. What had happened when he was gone? Was everything okay now? What was wrong with the weather? A few footsteps were heard behind him.

"Hey." Someone whispered and the hero tried to recognize the voice, turning around to see a girl, about his age, with a sprinkler in her hand, her aqua-blue hair were styled in a side braid and a small tiara of leaves and twigs sat on her temples. She smiled when Nabu's dark eyes met her sea-green ones and the wizard returned her smile. She seemed friendly. She nodded towards the bed, implying that he should rest. She seemed friendly _before_ she did that. Nabu shook his head.

"Hey um..." The wizard frowned.

"Ciara." The girl said. "I am a healer."

"Ciara...what's wrong with the weather?" Nabu continued frowning.

"You don't know?"

"Don't know what?"

"So the Queen hasn't told you." Ciara muttered, starting towards where Nabu stood.

"Hasn't told me what?" The hero peered at her, sick of all the vague answers.

"I think it's best that you let it go for now. The Queen will let you know eventually." Ciara's tone was serious. The frown did not ease from Nabu's face.

"What's wrong? I can feel it. Something's wrong. There is this energy...around." Nabu chose his words wisely.

"Indeed. You are a powerful wizard. You are bound to feel it." This was all the healer said to that, before nodding towards the bed yet again and Nabu gave in finally, his legs wobbling towards the bed. He was getting weak again. Nabu lay down on the bed as Ciara lifted the sprinkler, spraying the healing water.

* * *

"Initiating take off." Riven said, sitting in the main controller chair. The ship, which was newly updated could take verbal commands, but manual support was still needed. The specialists made sure to make full use of this feature, announcing everything out loud.

"Take off in progression." The king of Eraklyon voiced, his blue eyes staring at the screen. The ship lifted in the air with ease. Being the latest model of the Red Fountain ships, this ship was more than capable of going through dimensions, space travel and was easy to endeavor even through harsh, unfriendly weather. The winx could have just opened a portal with magic to reach Ireland, but the after effect that vortex-travelling had on the specialists was, to put it simply, unhealthy, keeping in mind that the boys were not capable of magic, on the other hand, vortex-travelling did not bother the girls at all.

"With the new engine boosts, we will be there in no time." Timmy's voice sounded excited.

"Sweet." Riven smirked, his hands on the controller.

Timmy, Brandon, Sky and Riven were in the controller's pit while Helia and the girls hung around in the sitting area of the control room.

Helia gave Flora's hand a squeeze.

"I am worried." The fairy of nature looked genuinely nervous. She couldn't be blamed. Everyone was anxious right now.

"We will be fine. Trust me." The dark haired hero smiled at his girl, clasping his hands in hers and Flora smiled, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Am gonna miss you babe." The fairy of the sun and the moon was staring out a window, her luscious lips pouted.

"Who are you talking to?" Tecna laughed.

"The sun." Stella said, as if it was too obvious. Tecna just looked at her with the 'please elaborate' expression.

"It's raining cats and dogs on earth." The princess of Solaria replied.

"It is?" Flora asked, joining in the conversation.

"Uh ha. Brandon said that Timmy looked it up in his computer or something."

"Aah." Flora nodded.

"Soo...how was it?" Stella turned towards Musa, staring at her.

"How was what?" Musa chose playing dumbfounded.

"Your conversation. It's been so long."

The fairy of music's eyes flew upto the main controller seat, finally settling them on the switched off screen in front of him. He was looking straight ahead and Musa continued staring at Riven's reflection. For a brief second, the hero looked down at the screen and their eyes met before Musa looked away, a blush creeping up on her cheeks. Flustered, the songstress let out sigh of exasperation.

"Whatever." Musa said, crossing her arms across her torso. A loud grunt was heard from the controller's pit. Too loud. Musa shook her head.

"Uh...okay." Stella shrugged, pretending like she did not see what they did there, just like everyone else in the ship.

"What do you think the mission will be?" The keeper of the dragon flame broke the silence that had settled around for a fleeting moment.

"We are not sure." Helia said. "But earth is pretty disturbed right now. The weather's constantly changing."

"Ya it is." Brandon agreed. Everyone looked up to see that Brandon, Sky, Timmy and Riven had joined the sitting area now.

"Auto-pilot." Timmy announced, seeing the alarm in everyone's eyes.

"How long do you think we will be there?" Layla spoke to no one in particular.

"Who knows?" Flora wondered out loud.

' _Cause you have got my heart and my breath...'_ Someone's phone screamed and Musa checked her jeans pocket to realize that it was hers. Looking at the caller ID she smiled sweetly, hitting the 'attend' button.

"Jared." Musa squealed as his face hovered in front of her, getting up, she walked away towards the gear room. Another grunt was heard. Even more louder this time. Riven folded his hands across his torso, shaking his head. As awkward as the situation could be, everyone pretended that nothing had happened.

The four specialists ambled back towards the controller's pit, taking their respective places.

"We are entering the atmosphere." Timmy announced, loud and clear, making sure everyone heard him. Everyone looked out the windows and to their surprise, it wasn't just raining all alone, the sun was accompanied with it.

"Huh..." Layla frowned in confusion. The princess of Andros had seen a lot of things but she had never seen something like this. Others reacted pretty much the same way. The sky looked dark, overcast, and enormous drops, the shape of tears, splattered on the roof of the ship with the shine of the sun from the side as a cherry on the top. A rumble of thunder was heard and the ship shook.

The heroes did not want to admit it, but they were loosing control of the ship.

"Activate double-deluxe controls." The squire screamed at his screen. Nothing. Brandon exchanged a worried glance with Sky.

"Activate double-deluxe controls." Helia tried this time, his voice loud. No one had noticed when exactly Helia had taken his place in one of the controller chairs and no one asked.

Everyone was in the controller pit now.

"What's wrong?" Tecna gasped.

"I don't know...I am sensing some kind of disturbance in the environment. We are not able to grasp any signals from around." Timmy said, trying to stay composed. The ship shook once again, a good hard one this time.

"Emergency." Sky shrieked at his screen. All in vain.

"Emergency." Riven repeated the code-word. Nothing.

 **Haaaarrrrrrrrrraaaarrrrhhhmmm!**

A strange sound echoed through the ship and the sound of thunder just amplified it.

"Uhh...guys?" The spectacled hero said.

"Yeah Timmy?" Everyone said in unison.

"No need to panic but...um...we are going to crash now."

 _AN: So how was it? Let me know what you guys think. Peace out!_


	7. Chapter 7

_Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!_

 **Chapter- 7**

Drip. Drip. Drip. It was raining as if it will never stop. The hero looked around, tearing his eyes away from the windows and the rain. The palace, Tir Nan Og was huge. Enormous. Gigantic. The wizard's dark eyes gazed at the lille-colored walls of the room, all the while wondering what exactly lie behind them. Getting up, Nabu perched on the side of the bed. This room was frustratingly depressing. It wasn't like it wasn't pretty, if anything, it was lavishly furnished. A beautiful mahogany sofa set sat in front of the bed, a big one, accompanied by two small ones that could also be used as chairs. The roof above was simply breathtaking. It was painted all kinds of shades of colors that Nabu could possibly think of. Literally. The bright chandelier just made it all better. At the corner of the room lined these elegant artifacts. They were precious, Nabu could tell. The wall in front of him was filled with paintings. Small and big. And the bed itself was too comfortable. It was just the idea of staying in the room that made it depressing. Staying and resting. Staying and sleeping. Staying and getting healed and fed. The wizard got out of the bed, slowly but steadily. It was as if Nabu was compelled to get out of here, his legs moving on their own. Out of the room with no one in sight, Nabu started towards his right. Not a very well-lit path but there was something intriguing about it. The hero continued walking, crossing a dimly-lit hallway full of paintings.

 _Exactly how many paintings does this place have?_ Nabu thought.

"God, this palace is a tardis." Nabu muttered under his breath as his legs jogged the never-ending hallway and the paintings flew by. The wizard frowned, realising the more he went inside the hall, the more the paintings increased. The hero started walking again in favour of jogging, running out of breath. A streak of sweat rolled down Nabu's forehead and he swiped it away with the back of his hand. When Nabu was about to give up, almost turning around, his eyes registered a rich brown door up front. Taking a quick glance around, the wizard opened the door with a quick flick of his wrist. Lights blinded him. The room was too bright for Nabu's eyes and they took a fleeting moment to adjust. The hero's eyes widened in surprise. And in awe. If Nabu thought that his room was beautiful, then he didn't know what this room was. It was...majestic. Magically awe-inspiring. The shape of a sphere, the room could easily be called a ballroom except that it was too strikingly beautiful for that. A low whistle escaped the wizard's lips.

"Wow..." Nabu's voice echoed.

The room was full of realistic statues. Statues of fairies. Hero fairies. Thats when the realization hit him. This was the hall of fame or something like that. A smile flashed across the hero's face when he walked past Ms. Faragonda's statue. She was in her believix form maybe. It occured to Nabu that he never had seen the headmistress of Alfea transform. Not even once. Her wings were the prettiest shade of vibrant purple. A few more statues of fairies were seen, he recognised Morgana was one of them. Nabu continued walking until skidding to a halt at the statues of them. The winx. They were the last in the room. And probably the youngest, all in their believix form. Bloom in her pretty blue suit, Stella in her fashionable honey-golden suit, Musa and her majestic purple-violet suit, Flora in her cute pink-green suit, Tecna was sporting her fab violet suit, and then the hero lost his breath completely. There stood his girl, in her breathtakingly gorgeous aqua-green suit, her cheek bones perfectly chiseled and lips a sculptor's dream. Her hair was left open, down by her side in a curtain of curls. And those eyes. Those mesmerizing turquoise eyes. Inadvertently, the wizard reached for her cheek, gently stroking the statue's cheek. Nabu let out a wistful sigh, getting lost in her beauty. Oh, how he longed to hold her in his arms again and never let go. Helplessly, the hero stroked the statue's cheek again, his lips curved into a smile. How much he had missed her.

"Oh, Layla." A voice whispered feebly and it took a second for the wizard to realize that it was his.

"What are you doing here?" Someone said from behind, snapping Nabu out of his thoughts. The wizard turned around and his eyes met her sea-green ones.

"Ciara?"

The healer just sighed at Nabu, her expression that of disbelief.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" The girl asked finally, her eyes demanding an answer.

"Um..." Shrugged the hero before turning back towards the statues.

"May I ask you a question Ciara?" Nabu whispered, his eyes on Layla's statue.

"If you want to."

"Do you believe in soulmates?" The wizard asked, his voice dreamy.

The healer let out a dark chuckle and Nabu spun around to look at her, his eyebrows flying up to his temples.

"Uh...maybe. I have not met mine...yet." The healer said, her eyes locking with Nabu's.

"Well I have." The hero smirked, turning away towards Layla's statue.

"The princess of Andros?"

"She is gorgeous, isn't she?" Nabu breathed, sighing.

"She is." Ciara agreed. Something told Nabu to turn towards his right and so he did, walking towards a wall.

"What are you doing?" The healer sounded panicked, close behind Nabu.

The wizard gazed at the wall in front of him closely and stretched his hand out to touch it. A low rumble was heard as the wall disappeared and left behind a dark room in its place. Nabu squinted in the dark, ambling forward.

"Come back here, please." Ciara was saying as she followed him.

"A cloacking spell?" The wizard turned around to look at the healer before starting to walk again.

"Yes. Because no one is supposed to be in this room." Ciara whispered. "We should just go."

The room was not that well-lit but was bright enough to see and look around. This room was different than before. A complete opposite except that it was filled with statues too. But Nabu was sure that they were not heroes. There stood, with his thin, sheer cape, the statue of Lord Darkar. And beside him stood Valtor. Nabu continued walking, his brows crinkling into a frown. He walked on, recognising every single statue. The Trix were next. Icy stood there, with that cold look on her face, with Stormy beside her, scowling and in the end stood Darcy, her face seemed eerily calm but mad at the same time. The ancestral witches were there too. In fact everyone and everything was there. How much evil exists in this universe. Nabu's hands dangled by his side's, balling into fists. He walked on and saw them. The wizards of the dark circle. Their leader, Ogron, his flaming red hair was windswept and the gleam in his eyes was monstrous, beside him stood Anagan, wearing a dirty grin and at the end was Gantlos, his blond head covered by a hat and face twisted in an animal snarl. The fairy hunters looked deadly in their medieval armors. Nabu resisted a strong urge to break the statues in front of him with his bare hands and then something occured to him.

"Where's the fourth one?" Nabu frowned. "Duman?"

"This is the hall of the defeated. They have to be remembered so that we can remember the techniques that were used to defeat the evils of all time."

"The hall of the defeated?" The words rolled on Nabu's tongue. "But they are in the Omega Dimension aren't they all?"

"Um..." The healer did not say anything else.

"Noooo..." Nabu almost shrieked, realizing the predicament. "He's not...he's alive?" Nabu asked, as fury washed all over his being. Ciara just moved closer to the wizard who was shaking with rage right now. One of her hand cupped his cheek while the other held his shoulder, her green eyes locked with his dark ones. As much as the hero wanted to, he couldn't look away. There was something holding him in place and all he could do was continue staring at the girl in front of him.

"Nabu..." The girl said, looking at him closely before closing her eyes. Helplessly, as if Nabu had no control over his own body, the wizard closed his eyes too.

* * *

"What do you mean the ship's going to crash? Why don't you just do what you always do in that system of yours, Timmy." Stella's voice shook with panic, raising an octave.

"The system's not responding." The spectacled hero said, his voice barely a whisper.

"Emergency." Helia was screaming into his screen in vain.

"How long?" Bloom asked, already weaving a plan in her head.

"We have got 10 minutes. At most." Brandon replied, his fingers flying on the controllers in front of him.

"I don't wanna crash." Stella spoke to no one in particular.

"Oh, you think we do princess?" Riven said bluntly in a dry voice.

"Let me see. Bloomix." Tecna said, closing her eyes in anticipation. Nothing. Tecna frowned as a feeling of worry washed over her. "Bloomix." The fairy of technology screamed, waiting for the transformation to happen. Nothing.

"Winx bloomix." All the girls shouted at the same time and no one transformed. No one said a word as everyone exchanged worried glances.

"We are not able to transform!" Flora exclaimed, her face scrunched up in anxiety.

"That's what we needed." Sky called back, his voice sounding vacant as he pushed some buttons around.

 **Hhhhhhhhaaaammmrmm...**

Another lighting strike and the ship shook, inducing everyone to loose their footing.

"This is not looking good." The spectacled specialist said.

"I don't understand. Why can't we transform?" Layla strived to sound calm and miserably failed.

"Something is not right." The princess of Domino muttered.

"Ya, I feel it too." The fairy of music agreed.

"It's in the air. This energy..." The princess of Solaria whispered.

The relentless rain continued pouring down, but the sun didn't leave it's side. Large rain drops continued dripping down on the roof of the ship. The _latest_ model of Red Fountain ship was not responding. This bothered Timmy. This was a failure, not only of Red Fountain's technology but also of Red Fountain's words. This is what they called their best? This ship was supposed to withstand harsh weather. It was supposed to travel through space. The hero knew that this should be the least of his concerns right now but you couldn't blame him. He loved this ship. He had helped in it's making. It's technology, it's materials, it's interior. In fact, Timmy was one of the very few trainee teachers that worked on this project. A privilege given to very few and Timmy was proud. Conceited if you will. But right now the ship was proving to be nothing but trash, frustrating the hero even more.

"Let's all converge to shield the ship." Musa said and the winx closed their eyes in concentration, their hands outstretched. Even if they couldn't transform, they could use magic, though it was humongously less when compared to the magic they could do after transforming.

"Winx convergence." The boys heard the girls shout and fair enough, a pink-white shield surrounded the ship. The specialists could breath now, at least their landing would be cushioned and maybe, just maybe they won't actually crashed.

"Nice job girls." The king of Eraklyon smiled, spinning around in his controller chair to look at the fairies. Bloom smiled at him and his face mirrored it.

"Phew." The squire sighed. A sigh of relief.

"Let's minimize the speed." Helia said, his eyes on the controllers in front of him. The heroes obliged, spinning around in their chairs to push a few buttons. The ship was break-dancing. Literally. Another bolt of lightning was seen outside and soon enough a rumble of thunder was heard. Loud, animalistic almost. The next thing everyone noticed was that the shield outside had disappeared in thin air, as if it was never there. The amount of panic in the room rose to a whole new level. As if it wasn't enough already. Everyone gasping for breath.

"The shield won't stay. We are not strong enough." Tecna spoke in a rush.

"We need to transform." The fairy of the dragon flame said.

"Winx. Bloomix." The fairies gave the transformation another try only to be disappointed. The specialists were trying their best to get a handle of the ship.

"You need to work. Come on shooter." Timmy frowned at the screen in front of him.

"Shooter?" The magenta haired hero frowned back at the spectacled specialist.

"Yeah, Timmy named the ship shooter." Brandon murmured offhandedly, his eyes fixed at the controlling board.

"Shooter?" Riven repeated the word, his brows flying up.

"That's a decent name." Timmy protested childishly.

"Not a good one, Tim." Brandon chuckled.

"Whatever. It's much better than the one you gave to our last ship."

"Hey, Rosa was a beautiful name. And Rosa was beautiful herself." The squire shot back, meeting Timmy's eyes.

"Aah. Forgot all about Rosa. It's still in Red Fountain's garage?" Riven asked casually, as if strolling through a park.

"Um...actually it's not _it._ It's _she._ " Brandon pointed out.

"Guys? Facing a problem here?" Helia's tone was serious.

"So..." Brandon heard Sky say somewhere behind him, realising that he wasn't beside him in his seat.

"You guys can't transform or shield the ship?" The king of Eraklyon asked. Layla just shook her head as an answer.

"Hmm..." Sky just nodded, brooding.

"So what's the plan?" The keeper of the dragon flame looked at him. Her eyes looked disappointed. Sky knew that look very well. The look she wore when she couldn't help in a situation. The hero suppressed an urge to scoop her up in his arms, just wanting to comfort her.

"Hey, its not your fault." The blond specialist stroked her bright fire-like hair, giving her a weak smile.

"Yeah so this ship is...a disgrace to all the others ships out there." Timmy shook his head, abandoning his chair to walk towards the girls and Sky. Giving up on the ship. His face puffed up with anger and disappointment. The other heroes joined him shortly.

"We will fix it." The fairy of technology gave Timmy's hand a quick squeeze.

"Well, there's only one thing we can do." Brandon said with a dark face, instantaneously grabbing everyone's attention.

"And what's that?" Sky looked at the green eyed hero.

"Jump." The squire shrugged before breaking into a grin. Sky shook his head, Riven let out a small snarl and the rest of them just sighed.

"Brandon..." Helia warned.

"Alright, alright. We can...um...maybe take the Levi bikes then." Brandon was quick to say.

"Brandon, could you please be serious for a...wait. That's not actually bad." The pacifist sounded surprised.

"Really?" The squire sounded surprised himself.

"Wow, nice Brandon. Let's do that." Timmy smiled.

"Oh you know, am not just some pretty face." The green eyed hero smiled back.

"Okay. Let's leave before you suggest something stupid again." Riven muttered before turning away towards the gear room.

* * *

"I didn't think that he will come you know?" Jared said as he looked over at Nex.

"Yeah, me neither." The paladin agreed. After saying goodbye to Layla and the others, Nex had just come back to Red Fountain. He did not live here, but it was kind of his temporary home right now. Thoren and Nex were trainee teachers back at Eraklyon but lately these days, the two Eraklians were thinking of moving here. Layla was here for crying out loud. They had been dating for a few months now and the hero could see it turning into something serious. That girl made him wanna bang his head in the wall or something. He was, to put it simply, crazy about her.

"Was Musa happy seeing him?" Jared derailed Nex's train of thoughts.

"Oh I don't know man. They hugged and well..."

"And well what?" Jared pressed.

"Well, I don't know. We all left." Nex replied.

"Huh. So Riven is back." Jared crossed his hands across his torso.

"Yeah he is." Nex said. "Hey, how did your assignment with Saladin go? Your level increased?" The blue haired hero asked as they continued walking down the hallway. Red Fountain offered these trainee teacher courses to get you certified. Thoren and Nex were taking one of those. As were the others. A certificate from Red Fountain was like the most prestigious one there was. You could teach, fight and train specialists anywhere. Open your own school if you want to.

"The results we be out tommorow." Jared replied, stopping abruptly.

"I'll see you then." Nex nodded as Jared gave him a half smile before walking into his dorm.

* * *

When everyone had agreed to the Levi bikes, it was clear that no one had thought it through. Not even Timmy or Tecna. They couldn't be blamed but, no one was thinking straight anyway. There were six bikes in total. Sky and Bloom took one, Brandon and Stella shared another one, Timmy and Tecna took the third one, Flora sat with Helia, Layla and Musa took the fifth one and Riven had his maroon one. It should have been a cakewalk to drive the bikes down to the land but no one had thought about the weather and the rain drops and the lighting did not make the bikes any easier to maneuver. The plan was simple. Everyone was supposed to get out of the ship, landing on the ground, safe and sound while the ship was in it's minimum speed and was on landing mode. It was supposed to land somewhere, or crash or whatever and then the group was going to find it and fix it. Well, Timmy and Tecna were going to anyway. But the rain had made the driving a bit more tricky and a lot more tiresome. Now, as everyone lay down on the ground, not bothering if it was wet and sloppy, or showing not be bothered in Stella's case, looked tired and out of breath.

"Boy, that was rough." Brandon gasped for breath.

"Tell me about it." Sky retorted. Looking around, the blue eyed specialist frowned. Everything looked so dull. So...lifeless. Letting out a slow breath, Sky looked at Bloom with a tinge of panic in his eyes.

"It's so different than the last time we were here." Brandon concluded and everyone nodded. Memories flashed in front of his eyes. The wizards of the dark circle. The palace. The beautiful surroundings. The vortex that took away Nabu. Sadness hit the squire hard as a feeling of guilt washed over him. His eyes met Sky's briefly and the squire knew that he was thinking the same thing. Silence settled around except for the pitter-patter of rain around. No one spoke. Everyone was exhausted. The green eyed hero closed his eyes, his back on the ground as he took a deep breath.

"Brandon, behind you! Get up!" Musa's voice rang in the squire's ears and he turned around and his eyes widened.

 _AN : So this was a small chapter. Spoiler alert- Nabu will finally meet the squad and the winx in the next chapter. Stay tuned. Let me know what you think. Peace out!_


	8. Chapter 8

**_Chapter 8 is here! But before that I would just like to say that...my story got 3k views! :) Now I know that it doesn't sound that huge but it's a big deal for me! Thank-you my lovely readers for keeping up with my irregular writing. You guys rock!_**

 **Chapter -** **8**

Drip. Drip. Drip. The hazy sheet of rain made it harder for the squire to look around and the lightening just worsened the predicament.

"Easy. Easy." Brandon was saying, as he slowly backed away from where he was, his hands outstretched in an innocuous manner, resembling the demeanour of a dragon tamer. In front of him stood a...the green eyed hero did not even know what it was. It seemed to look like a very large horse with no skin and hair at all. No features and no distinguished body parts. From the top to the bottom, the creature was a dark shade of black. The darkest if that was even plausible. It growled, and a tar-like substance popped out of it's mouth. The specialists were trained to avoid encounters with unknown creatures in unknown surroundings. Well, this _thing_ was not known but the surroundings... well they had been here once, so maybe, just maybe it wasn't that bad. Maybe.

"No need to panic, everyone. This isn't that bad." The King of Eraklyon announced, his voice sure and confident as everyone hoarded in a group.

The creature roared, spewing a black liquid on the ground. Sky watched as slowly, the small weed that came in contact with the liquid burned, withered, till it turned black like the liquid itself and died.

"Okay this is bad. You can panic now." Sky muttered and a low hiss escaped the specialist's lips and his hands reached for his longsword.

"We can't transform, Sky." The blue eyed hero's ears rang with Bloom's voice and fair enough, as if obliged to what he said, she sounded panicked.

"Just stay behind." Sky retorted whilst his hand moved swiftly on it's own, the sword gripped tightly in it as the monster attacked the hero with full force. Some of the tar-liquid spilled on the hero's suit and sure enough, a rip on it was seen, the skin of his shoulder being exposed a tad.

"What is that thing?" Riven grunted, his purple phantoblade held snug in his fist.

"Um...I think that is one of the dark creatures. They are found in places with a huge amount of accumulated black magic." Flora whispered feebly.

"Dark creatures?" Stella frowned at the words.

"Yeah, I read about them somewhere." The fairy of nature said, her eyes not budging from the monster in front.

"How do you...?" Brandon couldn't complete his sentence and the dark creature suddenly abandoned Sky, havind found a new interest in the squire and lunged at him, roaring as it's large bead like eyes fixated at the hero. The squire swore those large green eyes were too bright and flashy to pass as...eyes. Normal living eyes.

"Ahh...ugh." Brandon blocked another blow from the creature with his broadsword. "Guys, I think that maybe we need a plan?"

"They can't be killed." Brandon heard Flora say and the hero couldn't help but curse under his breath. A slur of profanities escaping the specialist's mouth.

"But they can be stopped long enough and we can make a run for it." Flora chose her words carefully. "Until we reach the source of black magic and release it, they will keep existing."

"Err...what's their weaknesses?" The green eyed specialist queried while his weapon shielded him from the tar the creature was spraying right now. Sky, Helia, Timmy and Riven were doing their best to distract the stupid animal with their respective longsword, laser strings, laser gun and phantoblade, so that Brandon could be left alone for a moment but the stubborn creature just wanted him as if it's whole life depended on him.

"Try hitting it's eyes." The fairy of nature called back.

"Huh." With a swift flick of his wrist, Brandon aimed his sword towards the green eyes of the monster. And it was a bullseye. The creature screamed. Or let out a very strange and unpleasant sound before it's huge body met the ground.

"All right!" Triumph was heard loud and clear in the green eyed hero's voice as he made his way towards the group.

"Look's like the creature really liked you." Riven mocked, locking his eyes with Brandon's.

"Maybe it liked pretty people and objects." The squire shrugged, a smile playing on his lips.

"Or maybe not." Riven smirked.

"Or maybe - "

"You can do this all day. Let's get out of here before it wakes up again." Brandon was cut short by Helia's statement, his eyes clouded with worry.

"Uh huh." Riven agreed, already making his way forward, not bothered by the huge droplets that drenched his uniform and Brandon, Stella, Sky, Musa , Helia, Tecna, Layla, Timmy, Flora and Bloom were right behind.

* * *

As they continued walking it got uncomfortably dark. Too dark. The sun was nowhere to be seen, hidden behind the lush canopy of the thick trees that surrounded them. No one talked and just the squeak of various footsteps filled the space. Much to everyone's relief (especially Stella's), it had stopped raining for awhile now. But that didn't mean that the sloppy wet mud, huge water puddles and the annoying occasional thunder weren't there. To make the matters worse, it was getting even darker, if that was even possible. Stella just wanted to light up this whole place with a mini sun spell but a spell like that needed something she didn't have access to right now, magic. The little, the girls were left with was being saved for emergencies. Sky stretched his arm in front of him and sighed when his own eyes couldn't register it. It was _that_ dark. Even the footsteps couldn't be heard anymore, bothering Sky even further.

"Stella, I think this is an emergency." The King of Eraklyon muttered and the princess of Solaria sighed in relief. Mustering all the strength that the fairy of the sun and the moon could find in herself, she released a ball of shining light that instantly lit the dark surroundings at once. The hero's blue eyes took a brief moment to adjust the sudden bright light. As the specialist looked around, his eyes met Stella's vexed golden honey ones. No one was around them. It was just the two of them.

"Where is everyone?" Stella asked, not bothering to disguise the anxiety in her voice.

"I don't know!" The hero was quick to respond, looking around with alarmed eyes. Nothing and no one was there. Except for the trees. And then it began pouring down again.

"Perfect!" Stella screamed and Sky just sighed.

"We will find them." The specialist reassured the princess as they started walking again, the longsword ready to swing in his hand.

The black magic was too much to bear and Stella was hit the hardest. Darkness always made the princess of Solaria weak. Meek. She hated it but she couldn't help it. The fairy of the sun and the moon was from Solaria for crying out loud. And darkness and Solaria were two words that couldn't even be used in the same sentence. A feeling of nausea surged inside the princess as a streak of sweat rolled down her temples. Gasping for breath, she skidded to a sudden halt. The darkness becoming a burden, pushing her down.

"Sky..." Stella called, as loud as her dry vocal chords would allow. "I can't..." The Solarian kneeled down, clutching her chest in the process. Sky turned around and his eyes registered Stella's small figure down on the ground, the tiny ball of light that was following them was weakening.

"Stella..." Panic rose in Sky's voice as he rushed towards the princess. Kneeling down to her level to take a good look at her. There were bags under her eyes and those bright honey golden eyes looked darker. Her face had changed colour. Stella was not in a good shape, the black magic and the darkness were taking a toll on the fairy of the sun and the moon.

"Hey, stay with me." The King of Eraklyon whispered as he gently patted her cheek. Stella's eyes were drooping now, it won't be long before she faints. "Stella..."

"Light..." The Solarian whispered feebly and the Eraklian did not know what to do.

"You will be fine. Come on." Sky finally said as he lifted the princess up in his arms. By the looks of it, the king was sure that Stella won't be able to walk on her own. So there was nothing left to do, except of course to carry her. Sky's eyes gazed at Stella closely. Even if he would never admit it, the hero was scared. Not for himself of course. But for Stella. He had never seen her this weak. This helpless. The winx knew how to take care of themselves and even if they had the slightest energy left in them, none of them would have agreed to getting carried this way and Stella was no exception. And on the top of that, everyone was missing. Just gone. Vanished in thin air. The specialist inside him screamed at him to stay calm, but _Sky_ just wanted to scream. So he did.

"Bloom?" The hero's voice echoed while the small ball of light that Stella had made slowly died into nothing and darkness engulfed them again. No response.

"Brandon? Tim? Helia? Riven? Bloom? Flora? Musa? Tecna? Layla? Brandon? Bloom?" Sky shouted at the top of his lungs, just to have his own voice bounced back at him. That's when something occured to the hero. All of them were provided with their very own hovering balls of metal- light. Something just right for the situation that they were in now. Reaching for the small pocket in his suit, all the while trying to balance Stella, the specialist grabbed one of those balls and pressing the button, released it in thin air as a squeaky sound was heard and the place was lit up once again. Sky mentally kicked himself for not thinking of them before. These lights were brighter, a creamy shade of blue. Slowly, as if feeling the light, Stella's eyes fluttered open.

"Brandon?"

"No. It's Sky."

"Brandon, where were you snookums? I was worried." Stella whispered, reaching for Sky's cheek. It did not take long for the hero to realise that the fairy was hallucinating. When black magic took its toll over a fairy, or anyone for that matter, it weakened them in the worst way possible, inducing them to hallucinate, lose their sense of control and what not.

"Aww...I love you too." Stella was saying as she continued stroking Sky's cheek.

"Stella, it's Sky." The hero let out an exasperated sigh, all the while shaking her slightly to wake her up from the trance. Not expecting it to work, but it kinda did. Stella widened her eyes, blinking. Slowly, Sky put her down on the ground when he was sure that she could stand on her own. The metallic ball of light continued hovering above. Rubbing her eyes, Stella frowned.

"Sky?"

"Yeah, are you alright?"

"Where did Brandon go?" Stella continued frowning and Sky pursed his lips, just staring back, waiting for Stella to get the drift of it. And sure enough, her eyes widened again and she shook her head.

"Was I...?"

"Yeah." The specialist whispered back, noticing the unease in her eyes.

"You fixed the stupid darkness atleast. I don't feel that weak anymore." Stella nodded at the floating metal ball.

"Can you walk?"

"I guess." The princess shrugged. "How did we get separated anyway?" Stella asked, as the two started walking again.

* * *

The three fairies marched on, no one speaking a word. The only light guiding them came from the portable torch that thankfully, Tecna had in her jeans pocket. The trees looked dry and withered and in the absence of the sun, even more spooky and creepy.

"This is not a good place for picnic." Layla made a wry face, grimacing.

"It's because of the accumulated black magic." The fairy of nature simply stated, trudging on. The air was thick with this... _bad odour._ Except that it wasn't a smell that filled the environment. It was entirely something else. This choking feeling was making its way to the girls heads and they could feel their energy draining, ounce by ounce, but no one wanted to give in. Who would? It was weakening them and all of them strived to hold their ground, not caving in.

"Everything is so..." Tecna searched for a word.

"Different?" Flora offered.

"Dead." Layla concluded. No said anything to that. Silence hugged the three of them as no one spoke a single word for a little while.

"I wonder what happened." Flora broke the transitory silence.

"Something bad." Layla shrugged, her eyes on the boots she was wearing.

"I hope everyone is alright. Nebula sounded too..." Before Tecna could have completed her sentence, unknowingly, her foot stepped on something black-tar-like and soon enough, she was getting sucked into quicksand. Except that this wasn't sand.

"Aah..." A scream escaped the fairy of technology's lips.

"Tecna..." Layla and Flora shouted in unison, their bodies lunging forward to help Tecna. After a lot of push and pull, the three fairies were out of breath, gasping for air as they lay on the sloppy, muddy ground. Tecna was out, safe and sound, drenched in black liquid, or whatever it was. But the flashlight that helped them through was not. They had to bid goodbye to the only source of light they had to quicksand and the only option left was magic. But the question here was for how long. Because soon enough, they knew they will run out of their powers.

"Beam of seeds!" Flora shouted. A few seeds were released, illuminating the path.

"We will take turns using magic until we reach Tir Nan Og. Hopefully everyone will be there too." Layla whispered, pushing herself off the ground. The only chance of contact with the others was a telepathy connection which they were certain they couldn't establish now. And their phones were too dripping wet to work. Sighing, Tecna and Flora got up too, following the princess of Andros. The fairies knew they had to get out of here, or else the black magic will consume them. Literally.

* * *

"Our best shot is walking towards the palace right now." The fairy of music announced to which the magenta haired hero just nodded, sipping water through a water bottle, seated on a rock. A metal-light ball hovered above them. Luckily, Riven had two left in his suit, much to his surprise. They had been hiking for awhile now, but it seemed like ages. Musa was sitting right in front of him, staring intently at him, frowning and for a spilt second the hero glanced over at her and his violet orbs met her azure ones before Musa looked away. Gazing around, the songstress grunted, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"What?" Riven asked.

"This...place. It's..." The fairy of music pursed her lips. "So dark with black magic. It's...weakening." Said Musa simply before getting up, abandoning her place on the rock.

"Are you sure you wanna keep moving?"

"You heard that?" Musa asked, straining her ears to listen closely.

"What?" The specialist took a fighting stance, his purple phantoblade ready in his hand. A few footsteps were heard coming towards them. A familiar face appeared in front and Riven relaxed his position.

"Brandon!" Musa exclaimed, letting out a small sigh of relief.

"Where were you guys?" The squire asked.

"We lost you people somehow." Musa peered at the green eyed hero, a small smile tugging at the end of her lips. Riven continued staring at the bushes that Brandon had come out from and sure enough, a small rustle was heard from them. Before anyone could react, Riven leapt in between Brandon and the bushes, his phantoblade ready to stike, aiming for its eyes, the hero let out a small scream and the squire tried to move out of the way. Three things happened in these ten seconds. A creature lunged at Brandon from behind. Riven lunged at the monster from the side. And Brandon was pushed out of the way by Riven, saving the squire in the process. The weapon hit the aim perfectly, inducing the creature to let out a snarl, an animalistic one, before it hit the ground. Riven frowned and Musa gasped.

"Woah." Brandon smirked at Riven, his broadsword gripped tightly in one of his fists. "You saved me man!" The green eyed hero said, moving towards Riven. "But who will save you?" The squire frowned before his whole face darkened.

"Huh?" Riven was caught off guard as the Brandon he thought he once knew, stabbed him, right on the shoulder. A nasty gash peeked from the hero's uniform and reflexively he stabbed back, watching as 'Brandon' morphed into black-liquidy tar and slowly evaporated. The magenta haired hero's brows flew up as he gazed at the place where 'Brandon' once was.

"Riven!" Musa shouted, making her way towards him.

"What was that?" The hero cursed under his breath, standing with his back shoved against a tree for support, inspecting the wound.

"Are you okay?" Musa asked, her voice sounding genuinely worried as she almost ran into the hero.

"It will heal." Riven gave his shoulders a quick raise, pursing his lips to disguise the fact that it did hurt. Like hell.

"You are bleeding." The songstress stated, reaching for a napkin in her pocket. "Here." She whispered, tying the handkerchief snuggly around the hero's shoulder. "That was one of the many illusions that can be created by black magic." Musa explained, looking up to lock eyes with Riven's. Her breath hitched when she realised how close she was to Riven. The proximity bothered her and at the same time comforted her in a way she couldn't explain. She couldn't just turn away from his eyes. Those hauntingly beautiful eyes. One of the hero's hands snaked around her waist, holding her in place. And slowly, as if compelled to, the specialist's eyes travelled down to her lips and before he knew it, he was leaning down, his eyes shut and his heart was drumming inside his chest, threatening to jump out of his rib cage. Musa did not know what to do, except lean in, her eyes half closed and just when their lips were a hair away, she turned away, biting her lower lip. Riven let out a small puff of air and sighed. Musa folded her arms across her torso, looking anywhere but him.

"We should get moving." The specialist finally spoke.

"Yeah." Musa agreed as the two of them started walking again. Both of them pretending nothing had happened whilst the relentless rain poured down. Far away, a hazy outline of the palace could be seen and Musa knew that they were almost there.

* * *

The three heroes continued walking, letting the keeper of the dragon flame lead their way. The silhouette of Tir Nan Og could be seen from where they were right now and a feeling of relief washed over their beings.

"We are almost there boys." Bloom called back, halting to a stop, spinning around to take a good look at the specialists behind her.

"Are you sure that this is the real one?" Brandon retorted, shuddering at the past memory. All the four of them, Brandon, Timmy, Helia and Bloom had walked inside a palace, one just like Tir Nan Og and then it had magically, with no heads up, morphed into black-liquidy tar, drowning them all in till they turned black just like the liquid. Now as everyone continued walking towards the palace and the rain continued pouring down, everyone wished that this would be it.

"I am pretty sure it is the real one, Brandon!" Bloom exclaimed, her eyes staring at the grand brown doors that enclosed the palace.

"Let's hope so." The spectacled hero murmured, his arms dangling by his side.

"So here we are." Helia said to no one in particular, his eyes gazing at beautiful palace up front. Even if the small hovering ball of light was all they had, the castle was beautiful enough to take his breath away.

"Shall we knock or something?" Brandon frowned and before his knuckles could have met the door, it creaked open on it's own only to have a girl behind it. About his age, her hair was a magnificent shade of purple, braided to a side and a small tiara of of dried oaks sat on her temples.

"Well, hello there." The squire smirked coyly only get smacked on his head by a hand and a suppressed laugh was heard from Timmy and loud sigh from Helia, who was shaking his head right now. "Ow." Brandon said, rubbing his skull while his eyes glared daggers at the owner of the hand.

"What?" Bloom looked at him.

"Why the - " The green eyed hero was cut short by the purple haired girl.

"The Queen awaits you." She nodded at them before ushering them into a small room. The room was brightly lit and was, to put it simply, breathtakingly beautiful with soft pink walls. But something else had caught the groups attention more than anything. Everyone was there. Flora, Layla, Tecna, Stella, Musa, Riven and Sky. A soothing feeling surged through Bloom as she leapt into Sky's open arms.

"Sky..." The keeper of the dragon fire whispered, nuzzling into his neck.

"Thank goodness, you are fine."

The couple turned around to see that Helia, Timmy and Brandon had engulfed Flora, Tecna and Stella in pretty much the same way, holding on as if they will never let go.

"Very well, now that you all are here, I would like you all to meet someone." Nebula's voice echoed in the room. Bloom blinked, noticing the Queen of the earth fairies for the first time. "Someone very special."

A small gasp escaped the princess of Domino's lips as her eyes went wide.

"Nabu?" Layla's voice shook with surprise.

"Layla..."

 _ **So that was it for today! Let me know what you guys think. Peace out!**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**AN: Hey guys, so it's been awhile. How is everyone? Good? Good. But I promise that the next chapter would be more longer. And for those of you who have forgotten, Vanessa and Mike are Bloom's adoptive parents on earth and they live in Gardenia actually and Vanessa is a florist but I dont know what her shop's name is, so I took the courtsey of naming it Petals. Heres the next chap! Enjoy!**_

 **Chapter - 9**

Drip. Drip. Drip. The weather did not look that well for Gardenia today. It had been raining since a week now, with just a few bits of breaks here and there. Her hazel eyes were locked at the small window in front, mesmerised by the splatter of rain drops. The sound of a bell snapped her out of her thoughts. Smiling, she looked up, her hands resting on the counter to see who had just entered the shop. It was a man. A rather strange man with a brown over coat made his way towards her.

"Welcome to 'Petals.' How may I help you?" She gave the stranger a warm smile.

"Hello..." His eyes darted at the name plate on her yellow apron. "Vanessa is it?"

"You got that right! Now, what are you looking for?" The florist enquired, her hazel eyes meeting his dark ones. There was something weird about this man that stood in front of her. But she couldn't quite point her finger at it. Squirming under his rather intense gaze, Vanessa tried to look away. She wanted to but she couldn't. His eyes held the piercing stare for awhile and the florist let out a nervous laugh.

"Take your time. We have got a lot of varieties here."

"Ya. I would like something...magical." The customer finally said. "Something that would _bloom._ " The stranger chuckled, still holding her gaze. Vanessa laughed along. Was it supposed to be funny?

"You know, I have a daughter named Bloom." The florist blurted out, desperate to end the awkward moment. The stranger blinked, looking at the corner of the shop in favour of her and Vanessa let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh you do?" The man's eyebrows flew up as he locked eyes with her once again. Seeming truly interested.

"Yes." The lady nodded, not indulging further in the topic. "Now...let's see what we got. Something magical huh?" Vanessa left the counter, making her way towards a section of plants and the man was close behind her heels.

"We have got a new batch of midnight roses. And they are in full bloom." Vanessa nodded at a few potted roses that sat on a shelf. "They need full sun to part shade. Medium moisture."

"They are beautiful." Was all the man said, his attention on the wall to his side. On a family photo that was hung on it, to be precise. "Is that your daughter?"

"Yes she is." Vanessa smiled at the photograph and Mike and Bloom and a very happy Vanessa herself smiled back at her from behind the frame.

"Hmm." The man let out another dark chuckle and Vanessa just frowned at that.

"Was that supposed to be funny?"

"No." The man simply stated, his tone darkening. "I'll take two midnight roses thank you."

"Okay."

Silence.

Vanessa walked back to the counter, with two potted midnight roses balancing in both of her hands. The stranger ambled along with her, removing the hat that was covering his head in the process. Vanessa set the roses on the counter and moved behind it. The man's face was the palest of white and his dark eyes, the florist noted were outlined by liner, giving him a very peculiarly scary look. And his hair was pink, styled in a Mohawk.

"Um..." The florist wrote something down. "That would be 6."

The customer handed her the cash without any words.

"Thank you for your purchase, Mr..."

"Duman. Just Duman. And I'll be seeing _you_ again." The certainity in the customer's voice frightened her but Vanessa dismissed the thought with a nervous laugh.

"Okay...?" Vanessa said, the word coming out more like a question than a response.

"Trust me on that, you will be seeing a lot of me." With one last chuckle, the man, Duman, walked away, making his way towards the door. The two rather heavy pots, carried by ease, as he slowly opened the door. A shiver ran down the florist's spine. Vanessa swore that he disappeared right after he stepped outside the shop. Vanished, as if he was never actually there.

* * *

"Layla..."

"Nabu?" Layla couldn't believe her own eyes. Right in front of her, stood he. Nabu. The princess of Andros blinked twice as tears threatened to come out. Was it really him? Or was it yet another cruel dream? The fairy was petrified but her legs did the walking, moving on their own, her eyes never leaving him as the distance that divided them turned into inches. The wizard broke into a smile, grinnig from ear to ear when Layla closed the inches that separated them.

"Nabu?" Layla asked again, her voice shaking with uncertanity. This was too good to be true. A tear rolled down her face as her hand stroked his cheek. Reflexively, the wizard's thumb stroked her tear away, smiling.

"I...I..." The fairy's voice shook again. More tears. Her turquoise eyes met his dark one and that was it. She couldnt hold it in any longer and she crashed herself against him, her hands cemented around his neck, hugging him with all she got, never wanting to let go. A small laugh escaped the hero's lips as he stumbled back a few steps due to all the weight she was putting on him. But hey, he wasn't complaining. One of his hands held her waist and the other stroked her hair.

"I...how many time I have imagined this exact moment." Layla muttered, pulling away to gaze at him. "I..." Another tear rolled down her eyes. "I have missed you so much. I thought I lost you."

"You could never lose me." Nabu engulfed her in another hug, both of them like two puzzle pieces, just fit. Perfectly. No one spoke as everyone watched the two share their moment. "Don't cry." Nabu pleaded and the fairy just smiled at that. Layla was never the one who cried. She hated crying. Loathed it. Always on guard, the fairy never showed weaknesses. But this was just something else, something worth crying for, worth letting her guard down for. It was him. Nabu. All those sleepless nights, hollow days, and now finally he was here. If this was a dream, she never wanted to wake up again.

"Nabu!" Everyone joined them, squishing them in a big group hug, not wanting to wait anymore.

"Man..." Brandon said, giving the wizard another hug. "A heads up would have been nice." The squire grinned.

"How are you?" Sky asked, engulfing the hero in a bear hug.

"I have been better, to be honest."

"We have missed you." Timmy was next.

"Nabu." Helia gave a quick hug before parting away. "Welcome back."

"Hey man." Riven smirked, giving him a one sided hug and a back slap. After a few 'Oh my god' from a very surprised Stella, who looked like she might faint any moment now, but you couldn't blame the fairy though, she was weak and hugs and kisses and 'how are you' from the winx, everyone was seated around in the tiny room. Squirming and fidgeting around to come to terms with that Nabu, yes Nabu was actually back. The room was surging with everyone's excitement. Everyone, to put it simply, was beyond happy. Elated. Euphoric. Layla did not leave Nabu's side even for a second.

"We need to talk." Nebula announced and she had everyone's attention.

* * *

The grand balconies of Red Fountain had the best view of the surrounding area on offer. The best. Surrounded by lush thick forest and the spectacular Lake Roccaluce, it was a sight to admire, to behold. The paladin's hands were gripped tightly on the railings as his eyes scanned the horizons. The sky above was clear, which was a rare thing because when ever the rainy season sets in Magix, it rained like it will never stop. But much to the the hero's satisfaction and surprise, the weather made him happy. Nex had always loved the sun. His phone buzzed in his pocket and the hero reached for it.

"Hello..." A familiar face appeared on the hovering Levi screen of the phone.

"Thoren."

"How is everything going there?"

After attending Linphea College together, the two paladin's had grown closer. It was safe to say that Thoren was Nex's best friend and his confidant. But it wasn't always like this, there was time when the two couldn't stand each other, always at each other's throats. Nex couldn't even remember what they used to fight about now. It was funny how times change.

"Everything's fine. The Course-E exam is tommorow and then I am done with this school." Nex grinned.

"Ya, I gotta finish the training too some day." Thoren made a face. "Anyways, are they back?"

"No." Nex frowned.

"Taking them long huh?"

"Ya..." Nex continued frowning, not knowing what else to say. He had tried calling Layla a bunch of times, with no response and frankly, the paladin was a tad worried now.

"How's Eraklyon?" The hero asked, changing the topic.

"It's great. Just met aunt and uncle." Thoren said, referring to Sky's parents. "Anyway, so you know about the 'Knightley Games' that Eraklyon hosts every year?" Thoren continued.

"Yes?"

"So these will be the one hundred and seventy fifth and they are gonna be grand." Thoren smiled at the thought. "Every school in the whole Magic Dimension will be joining them this year. I am second in command for the organization." Thoren gave his shoulders a quick raise, trying to not sound arrogant.

"Who's first in command?" Nex smirked, already knowing the answer.

"Sky..." Thoren whispered, not hiding the jealousy in his voice. "So...a slot was empty in Linphea College's section..."

"And...?" Nex's brows flew up, not liking the way where this was going.

"I'll be seeing you next week in the competition, then." Thoren nodded dismissively.

"Uh..." Nex nodded back. "Wait, what?"

"Oh come on. They wanted a qualified paladin so I figured..."

"Figured what? That you will wreck your best friend's plans?" Nex's voice sounded irked.

"What plans? You will be done with your training at Red Fountain by tommorow."

"No I wouldn't." Nex blurted out.

"Yes you would. Your Course-E exam is tommorow right?" The Eraklian quirked his eyebrows.

"Uh...I don't know man. What about the results?"

Thoren just continued staring at the paladin from beyond the screen, frowning.

"The results will be out the next day. You do realize that am a candidate of your course too right?" Thoren stated.

"Um...but.."

"But what?"

"I kinda wanted to stay in Magix for awhile." Nex admitted, shoving his hands in his pockets. Thoren continued glaring daggers at him so he felt the need to elaborate. "Explore you know? This place is beautiful." Nex grunted, not convinced by his own voice.

"I wanna see..." Nex gave it another shot, striving to find a word.

 _Come on, any tourist destination will do._

"Layla?" Thoren offered to which Nex's head nodded reflexively.

"Bring your girlfriend along." Thoren shrugged and a feeling of warmth surged through Nex. Suddenly, the idea of going to some stupid competition on Eraklyon did not seem that bad. Not at all.

"Fine. I'll see you then. Say hi to Daphne for me."

"Will do." Thoren couldn't help but smile at his best friend.

"You do know that you are falling for her right?"

"Huh." The blue-haired paladin grunted, shaking his head. "Whatever..." Nex dismissed the thought, but deep down he knew it was true. He was.

* * *

He could feel his powers draining slowly as the silhouette of Tir Nan Og appear. Teleporting was always nerve-wackingly demanding. But these days, he was running low on energy almost all the time, desperately needing a source to provide the energy he wanted. It was raining right now, but the rain never bothered the wizard anyway. To be fair, the weather was not much different from where he had started. Gardenia. Slowly, he started ambling forward, his feet not making a sound as they hit the sloppy wet ground. The last time he was here, he remember, the security was more tight. Now, as he looked over at the place in front of him, from his place hidden behind some bushes, he couldn't help but laugh. Oh how he pitied these fairies. There were just two of them guarding the stone now.

"This would be so much more easier." Duman chuckled inspite himself, shaking his head as his eyes gazed over the two guard fairies. But it wasn't their fault actually, he was the reason of their weakness, their fall, their seclusion. And Duman was proud. His brothers had to be avenged. Stretching his palms out, the wizard closed his eyes, not leaving his place on the ground.

"Haha..." A small chuckle escaped his lips as he watched while the two fairies fainted, their small figures, a lump on the ground.

"Now, let's get down to the business, shall we." Duman got up, abandoning his place as he started walking towards the stone. He had soaked up almost all the energy from it, but now, he had to have it. To merge it with him. A smile played on his lips as, there, in its full glory, sat the 'I-stone'.

* * *

"No one?" Bloom's voice echoed through the room, her eyebrows forming an arch across her forehead. Nebula smiled at that, and so did Nabu, feigning nonchalancy but he couldn't hold his smile.

"No one?" Stella repeated.

"No one. This young man right here is the first to ever walk out alive from the Black Dimension." The Queen nodded at Nabu, her hands folded on her lap.

"Woah..." The fairies smiled in amazement.

"So...this Black Dimension? Are we supposed to know about it?" Riven folded his arms across his chest.

"So let's start from the beginning." Nebula peered at him closely. "Every spell, be it a dark one or a white one, has a side effect. You girls must know."

"Ya, we have studied about it." The fairy of nature whispered. "The darker the spell, the bigger the side effect."

"Yes, they are directly proportional." Tecna contributed to the conversation.

"Exactly." The Queen beamed. "And what triggers it?" Nebula looked over at the specialists hopefully.

"The um...spell? I don't know?" Brandon was quick to retort, shrugging.

"No, the black dimension." Tecna corrected. "We have been through this like thrice."

"Hey magic is complicated. It's not as simple as technology and algorithms." Timmy defended.

Nebula let out a small laugh.

"Anyway, so when the wizards of the dark circle opened the vortex, I somehow stopped it, triggering the side effect at that instant, and that transported me to the Black Dimension and now, the black magic has accumulated due the side effect. Which resulted in - " Nabu spoke as if he had said these exact words a hundred times already. But before he could have finished his sentence, Bloom dived in.

"In all those black-tar illusions and dark creatures and -"

"And stupid 'Brandons' who want to kill me." Riven finished Bloom's sentence, all the while glaring daggers at the squire.

"Hey, not my fault." Brandon said as innocently as possible.

"But where is its source?" Stella asked.

"Right where it all started. The clearing in front of the palace." Nebula peered at the princess of Solaria.

"How do we stop all this?" Layla fired another question at the Queen.

"We destroy the source." Nebula answered.

"Why didn't you destroy the source already?" Bloom frowned. The specialists watched as the fairies carried on with their conversation and they nodded along eventually, convincing themselves, at the very least, that they were a part of it.

"Because..." Nebula whispered. Dramatic pause. "We can't. We are stuck in this palace."

"What? Why?" Stella almost screamed. But no one attended to that question as a very exhausted and tired Morgana appeared in the doorway, her breathing heavy.

"He...he took the 'I-stone'." She breathed and something registered Nebula's features. Fear. She was terrified.

"Morgana...whats wrong? Who? What stone?" Bloom spoke for everyone.

"He's back. Duman." Nebula whispered. "Let me explain."

"What?" Everyone said in unison, except for Nabu, who just sat their, keen for answers.

 ** _I_** _ **am almost done with the next chapter and will post it as soon as possible. It's just, I have been suffering from authors block and you guys are the only ones who keep me going. Reviews are much appreciated. I wanna know what you guys think. All the love.**_


	10. Chapter 10

**_Hey guys! So I wanted to do something different this time. It may seem like too-much-information-overload but well...I hope you guys like it. Enjoy!_**

 **Chapter -** **10**

Drip. Drip. Drip. It continued pouring down outside, leaving large splatters of water on the windows.

"Earth, is a beautiful planet." Nebula was saying. "It is too beautiful in fact. It's got it all. Water. Fire. Air. Land. And most imperatively, life and _magic._ " The Queen said, nodding.

"Magic? I thought the terrestrial fairies brought magic to Earth." Bloom whispered, her voice tinged with impatience, not wanting to wait for anwers. Something was going on and she wanted to know what. She needed to. And she needed to right now.

"No." Nebula shook her head, waiting for a moment to let that sink in.

"Really?!" Stella was genuinely surprised and by the looks of it, so was everyone else.

"Earth is one of those rare planets which are magically potent without any interference of someone or something. Naturally, if you will. It has this magnificent amount of magic that it is quiet unbelievable." The Queen of the earth fairies smiled while Morgana took a seat beside her. She looked too tired for her age, with bags under her eyes. And Nebula did not look that great either and this was worrying.

"Are you alright, Morgana?" Flora was quick to ask. It looked like Morgana was debating whether to give an honest answer or not but she just nodded. "Continue..." She said, referring to Nebula.

"So the magic used to be abundant on this planet. That was before the wizards of the dark cirlce of course. It was abundant to the point that it made the planet quiet..." Nebula searched for a suitable word, frowning.

"Unstable." Morgana contributed.

"Yes, unstable." Nebula agreed.

"So, the five ancient fairies, Quintina - the fairy of fire, Clothildis - the fairy of water, Ishild - the fairy of land, Tatiana - the fairy of wind and Zosime - the fairy of the vast, blue sky knew that they had to do something." Morgana peered and the reverence in her voice was heard loud and clear.

"The fairies of the five elements?" Tecna gasped.

"But I thought that they were just a myth." The keeper of the dragon fire muttered. The specialists kept nodding along, not comprehending a single word that was being said.

"No, they are not." Morgana stated simply. "They knew that they had to do something or else the earth would have been destroyed by magic overload. To stabalize the planet, they came up with what we call 'The Enchanted Stones.' There are five such stones, the I-stone, named after Ishild, the C-stone, named after Clothildis, the T-stone, named after Tatiana, the Q-stone, named after Quintina and the most powerful, the Z-stone, named after the mighty-"

"Zosime." Bloom finished the sentence for Morgana and the former Queen gave her a feeble smile.

"Yes. They installed these stones that soaked up the planet's energy, stabilizing it. They are scattered all around the world in places where the essence of magic is at par. And if you drain the stones of their powers then-"

"Then you will become the most powerful being on Earth." Stella cut Morgana short.

"Exactly. And not just that, the Earth will become a reckless ball of magical waves. Bouncing up and down with no stability at all. The stones did not just stabalize the planet, they are connected to the planet as a whole. If they are disturbed, then so will the Earth." Morgana continued.

"Well, that explains the weather." Layla said to no one in particular.

"Yes. Somehow Duman got access to Ishild's stone, 'The Stone Of Land', which was guarded by us." Nebula sounded guilty.

"How...?" Musa was curiuos. "I thought he was..."

"So did we. But when Nabu trapped him in a magic sphere to destroy him, a little part of his energy lingered. It did not take long for him to compile all his powers. But he was still weak, his powers drained. Now that we were stronger than ever, he knew he couldn't soak up our powers, so he soaked up the power of the..." Nebula stopped for a second, her eyes on the fairies in front of her.

"The 'I-stone'." Morgana offered.

"Yes." Nebula nodded.

"But...how? I was there when it happened. He was supposed to be dead." Riven frowned at the Queen, his face cold.

"Well things are never how they should be." Nebula retorted.

"But wasn't the stone guarded?" Bloom asked.

"It was, but he caught us off guard. He morphed as Nebula and drained the stone of its powers, inducing the unbalance in the atmosphere. Now he has the 'The Stone Of Land.' The earth is going to get more unstable, the weather is just the starting. If he gets all the stones then..." Nebula felt no need to finish her sentence, leaving it to their imagination.

"He was weak wasn't he? From where did he get the power to shapeshift and teleport?" Musa queried.

"We don't know for sure but we are assuming that he soaked up energy from vulnerable humans for that." Morgana said, disgusted.

"That greedy son of- " Brandon cursed, inducing Stella give him a 'watch the language' look.

"Can't we just change the locations of the stones?" Layla looked at Morgana.

"Firstly, we can't change the locations of the stones, it will irreparably harm the planet. And secondly, we don't know... the other locations." Morgana said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"What?!" Everyone said in unison.

"Yes. The ancient fairies feared that some may come after the stones, so they made sure that they are guarded." Nebula replied.

"The stones are a part of Earth now. They had been since the last five thousand years. They don't just channel energy, they enamate energy. The only person who can know the next location, must be marked." Morgana was saying, her eyes darting across faces.

"Marked?" Tecna frowned.

"Yes, marked by the bearer of the first stone. The person marked, will naturally know the next location."

"How? In, like a dream?" Stella asked.

"That is not known." Morgana replied. "But you can't just mark anyone, there are some conditions. The person being marked must practice white magic and white magic only."

"And they say that being marked takes a lot out of you. So the person being marked must be powerful and practice any higher form of magic." Nebula contributed.

"A higher form...like believix?" Bloom breathed.

"Indeed." Morgana nodded. "And they must be a guardian of any magical element. Something like nature or..."

"Or music?" Musa smiled.

"Yes. This is how these stones were made. Anyone who is the guardian of a magical element will not favour any evils." Nebula shrugged.

"So...he can mark someone like us?" Bloom's eyes travelled across the room to meet Sky's. He was worried to death, she could tell. The room fell silent and no one spoke a word.

"Yes." Morgana broke the silence.

"But why would he mark us? He knows we won't give away the location? Right?" Layla asked, turning towards Nebula in favour of Morgana.

"We are not saying that he will mark you. It's just that...he will find his way." The Queen's voice sounded hushed.

"So what do we do? We wait to get marked?" Stella squinted at Nebula.

"No, you don't want to get marked." Morgana spoke, her eyes locked with Stella's. "We will find another stone before him and then find the others with its help. Guard them and defeat him."

"That's the plan?" Sky hated the way the words came out of his mouth, mocking.

"For now, yes." Morgana said, her expression unreadable.

"But no one knows the locations of the stones?" Bloom asked, perplexed.

"That is correct. But..."

"But?" Bloom pushed.

"But, there is this place called the 'Lake of Wisdom'. People say you will find all your answers there."

"I have heard about it." Nabu nodded.

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

No one uttered a single word as everyone let all of that digest. This was too much to take in a day. Your friend is back from the dead. Great. But so is your enemy. Not great. And all of this information about stones, ancient fairies, some lake of wisdom, Brandon swore his head was reeling with too much information. The pitter-patter of the raindrops had increased, indicating that the rain had escalated.

"So you want us to go to the 'Lake of Wisdom'?" Helia questioned, he hadn't talked in a long time now.

"Precisely." Morgana smiled.

"But why are you stuck here? And why can't we transform?" Stella blurted out of the blue impatiently.

"And what was it again about that Black Dimension?" Brandon saw his cue to fire some questions of his own.

Everyone sighed.

"The thing with these 'Enchanted stones' is that they _control_ the amount of magic that surges through. They bind it. They bind us. Us, the terrestrial fairies." Morgana said, deciding to answer Stella first. "When Duman drained the stone of its energy, it messed the balance. We are weakening and we are slowly getting secluded. In a while, we won't be able to leave these castle."

"And that is why, we couldn't explain about the predicament that we are in. The telepathic connection that we established demanded a lot of magic. And we were losing time...we still are. He has to be stopped." Nebula said.

"And he will be." Bloom reassured her.

"And the reason why you can't transform is because of the side effect. When Nabu came back from the Black Dimension, a small passage was opened. The black magic just surged through, intensifying the side effect spell already." Nebula whispered. "And..." She said, turning to gaze towards the squire. "To put it simply, the Black Dimension is a place completely packed with black magic. Dark magic. It is a place that triggers the side effect of any spell. Black Dimension, is where side effects originate from. It is the source."

"But you said that the source is the place in front-" Bloom demanded.

"It is not exactly the source. We can't destroy Black Dimension, but we sure can destroy the passage." Morgana gazed at the princess of Domino.

"Okay." Brandon said, enlightened. "So all of that...we saw was because of some side effect of some spell?"

"Yes." Nebula said, her voice screaming with relief. "Finally."

"But the Black Dimension drained all your friend's powers." She said nodding towards Nabu. "He is very strong and brave, let me tell you and what he has done is a very impressive feat. He survived, only because of his heart. Pure and warm. He is physically, magically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally weak right now and needs constant sprinkling of healing water." The queen gazed at Nabu, who's eyes were drooping now, demanding sleep. He needed another sprinkle.

"Nabu!" Layla's fingers tightened around the wizard's hand. All that he had been through. And for what? Some stupid vortex by some amateur wizards? Nabu had closed his eyes now, fast asleep.

"I have located the ship on my system." Timmy informed, his eyes fixated on his hand-held computer screen.

"So maybe we should get going." The King of Eraklyon announced.

 _ **Soooo what did you guys think? Let me know. And a huge shout out to the lovely readers who could spare time to review the chap:**_

 _ **alexispeaney- aww thank you so much! Xx :)**_

 _ **adanethel- Heya! So I tried explaining the black dimension a bit more clearly in this one and thank you sooo much for your constant support. Means ALOT! And ya, I do have some ideas for this fic. Stay tuned! Xx :)**_

 _ **Guest- thanks you so much! Xx :)**_

 _ **MeltingLove- Heya, I know right, they are like perfect for each other! Hope you like this chap too. Thank you soo much for your time. Xx :)**_

 _ **Sd- thank-you! Well...you gotta keep reading to find out what Duman wants. Xx :) ;)**_

 _ **And to all the other readers out there too. I read your reviews, every single one of them. Sorry if I couldn't get back to you or if I failed to mention you. I have never actually done this in any chapter before. Have mercy. From now on , I'll just answer all of your reviews from the past chapters here. And once again, thank you, you reading this, for giving my story a try! You rock!**_

 _ **All the love... peace out!**_


	11. Chapter 11 - The stay

**_I really enjoyed writing this chapter. Hope you enjoy reading it. :)_**

 **Chapter 1** **1 - The stay**

Drip. Drip. Drip. The rain was relentless, crashing down the roofs of Tir Nan Og. It was too dark to decipher anything, but the keeper of the dragon flame continued looking outside, her eyes darting across the horizon.

"DRAGON HEART!" Bloom flicked her wrists as small sparks erupted in her palms, flickering for a second before they died. This was now the eleventh attempt of the princess to cast a spell around here. Any spell. But the amount of magic she had access to, wasn't enough and the fairy knew that she needs to transform for any kind of magic. If only the dark energy lurking around could just cease and let her transform already.

"Bloom." A familiar voice brought her back to reality. "You know it won't work, don't hurt yourself. Please." The King of Eraklyon pleaded, walking towards her, abandoning his place near the threshold. Looking around, Sky let out a small grin. "So this is our room?"

"Yeah." Bloom gave him a feeble smile before scanning the room herself. Truth to be spoken, the room was gorgeous. A lavish chandelier gave it a very magical ambiance, the walls were the most beautiful shade of red and it was a room accompanied by two very cozy looking queen-size beds, which Bloom was quiet sure were made out of teak wood.

"Well..." A sly smirk spread across Sky's face. "We will be needing just one of those." The hero said, nodding at the two beds. Bloom gave him another feeble smile of hers before turning around to look over the window again. Sighing, the specialist joined her at her spot, entangling his arms around her waist. "It will all be fine." Sky rested his chin on her head, tightening his grip around her.

"All of those things Nebula and Morgana said today...it's just...Duman is getting stronger. And he already had Ishild's stone...I..." The princess of Domino trailed off, letting her sentence hang in the air. "And it's soo frustrating...ugh...I can't transform Sky."

"Well...I have never transformed once in my life and I turned out just fine." Sky muttered and Bloom chuckled, inducing him to smile. Swiveling around to face him, the fairy of dragon flame giggled. "Huh, what would your magical power be?" Bloom wondered, locking her hands around his neck. The blue eyed hero just continued gazing in her warm blue eyes, mesmerized. Six years it had been since he knew her and Bloom still somehow managed to make him feel all tingly and warm inside.

"Sky - the wizard of cuteness." She giggled yet again.

"Oh ya? That doesn't sound that bad actually." Sky grinned, not letting go of her gaze.

"Uh huh." The princess nodded, smiling, a little colour creeping up in her face again, much to the specialist's relief. The dark magic was draining her powers, weakening her and Sky was worried to death for her. With a gentle movement of his fingers, he lightly pushed a few wild strands of her fiery red hair behind her ear. Cupping her chin with one of his hands, the hero closed the distance parting their lips with a slow yet fevrent kiss, their tongues moving in perfect sync. Bloom's hands found his blond hair, clinging to them and Sky's arm tightened around her waist. The kiss was slow but urgent. They parted away, while another lightening strike was heard outside.

"God, I missed you." Sky breathed, not letting her go. Even if they were together the whole day, he missed her. But well, fighting dark creatures, getting a long lost friend back and sitting through a very intense meeting, while getting to know about your enemy's plans and also knowing that the earth is slowly collasping wasn't actually being together-together.

"Me too." Bloom agreed before giving him yet another heated kiss.

"You hungry? Cause Timmy was just saying that they will be serving dinner shortly." The hero looked at her closely. Now that he had asked her, the fairy had to admit that she indeed was starving. Giving a quick nod, she looked at him from under her lashes, a coy smile playing on her lips.

"But we got some time before dinner, your highness." Bloom teased, pressing her lips against his.

* * *

"You know what they need around here?" Stella was perched on one of the armchairs their room had on offer while Brandon continued laying bedsheets on their bed.

"What?" The squire chuckled, already knowing where Stella will go with this.

"A mall!" The princess of Solaria exclaimed in delight. "A huge, multiplex mall. With all the fashion lines that were released in Solaria. Earth can use some of Solarian fashion."

"Well, Earth sure can hon."

"Seriously, I can see it. It will something they had never seen before. Something exotic." The fairy of the sun and the moon grinned. Stella had almost fainted in the sitting-room, the darkness too overwhelming for her to bear. Which in turn had made the group cancel their plan of leaving right away, head long, amidst the bad weather, black magic and not to mention the pitch black darkness. The specialists still had some of their metal-light hovering balls left but they sure were not enough to suffice. The fairies had exhausted themselves to open a portal to get through to Alfea, but all in vain. The side effect was creating some huge problems. Nabu himself did not look in good shape, so the plan was that they were all going to leave tommorow, preferably in the daylight and find the ship, fix it and get back to Alfea and Red Fountain. Nebula had very generously offered them to stay in the palace. As if they had any other choice. Stella had gotten frighteningly weak in a snap of the fingers and she had to be carried in the room by Brandon, not that he minded any bit of it. But just seeing her that weak had made him...he did not even know what. Terrified. Yes. Frightened to death. Yes. Nerve-wackingly worried. Yes. Heart- wrenchingly pained. Hell yes. Sky had told the brown eyed hero how he had to carry his girl all the way to the castle too. Even if Brandon thanked heavens that Sky was there for her, he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. _He_ should have been the one to carry her, help her, be by her whenever she needed him. Even though the dark magic that contaminated the surroundings weakend all the fairies, the fairy of the sun and the moon was the worst hit. Darkness always had this effect on her. If Brandon knew that this mission would be anything like this, he would have never let her come. He would have sent her somewhere nice and sunny. Solaria maybe. Somewhere safe. The hero was almost done with laying the bedsheets when a sharp knock was heard on the door, derailing his train of thoughts.

"Let me get it." Stella whispered.

"No!" Brandon shook his head. "Stay please. Rest babe." The specialist begged and Stella complied to his wish, not leaving her place on the armchair. A violet haired fairy was seen behind the door, a sprinkler and two plates filled with delicacies balancing in her hands.

"Hey." The squire smiled, automatically reaching for the plates in her hands, making the job easier for her.

"How is she?" The girl asked with genuine concern. Seeing the condition Stella was in, Brandon had requested Nebula to have someone deliver the food in their room and Nebula was more than happy to agree to that. It wasn't like Stella could just amble downstairs and have dinner with everyone else in the dinning room or whatever it was that the people in this palace had dinner in, the princess needed rest and Nebula knew that.

"I am fine." Stella called, while Brandon and the girl walked in the room.

"That's good to know." The fairy smiled. "Here." She handed the sprinkler to the squire when he set the plates down on a table nearby. "Use it. It will help her heal quicker. It's healing water from the white fountain."

"Thanks." Brandon returned her smile, not knowing what the white fountain was and he did not bother to ask as his brain had crossed today's limit and he was certain that it won't be able to grasp any further info and with that, the girl left the room, closing the door softly behind her, not bothering to strike up some random conversation which Brandon was thankful for. Stella needed him and he surely did not have time for small talk right now.

"Foods here." The squire announced, grinning sheepishly.

"God, I am starving to death." Stella said, getting up from the armchair but Brandon beat her to it, pushing her gently back into the chair. "What?" The fairy of the sun and the moon was annoyed.

"You know what?" The hero grinned wider as an idea struck in his mind. Slowly, he reached down, picking her up and carrying her, bridal style, trudging towards the bed.

"Brandon!" The princess let out a small squeal. "What are you doing? I am hungry"

"There." The specialist smiled, putting her down on the bed.

"What? Brandon I am tired."

"No. No. No. You stay right there, rest in this comfy bed and I'll feed you." Brandon said, bending down to kiss her on the forehead.

"You don't have to do that cupcake." Stella smiled.

"But I want to snookums." Brandon gave her quick kiss on the lips and made his way towards the small table. The hero was swift as lightening and was back in a second, his hands carrying a plate and he took a place on the bed in front of Stella, who had settled in a comfortable position by now.

"Where's yours?"

"I'll eat later." The brown eyed hero gave his shoulders a raise and Stella beamed at him.

"Do you know, that I have got the best boyfriend in the whole Magic Dimension?" The fairy quirked her eyebrows at him, smiling.

"Well, did you know, that..." Brandon whispered and Stella waited for him to finish his sentence.

"I know that." The squire grinned while Stella grunted. Putting the plate down, the hero gave her another kiss, more passionate this time. More urgent. "Well, she already knows that she is the best girlfriend in this whole damn universe." Brandon whispered, resting his forehead against hers. Stella grinned wider than a child in a candy store.

"Ya she does." The Solarian feigned arrogance, scoffing and the Eraklian just let out a small chuckle before kissing her one last time on the her temples.

"Alright now. Food time." The hero said, reaching for the plate.

* * *

The dinner table was empty except for Flora, Helia, Tecna and Timmy. Brandon and Stella won't be coming and by the looks of it neither were Nabu and Layla. Sky, Bloom, Riven and Musa were yet to come. Nebula and Morgana were going to join them shortly too. Helia was holding Flora's hand as no one spoke for a few minutes. As soon as the two couples had settled in their rooms, they had decided to come downstairs for food. Two figures appeared in the hallway, making their way towards the table. Bloom and Sky took their seats beside each other, their hair very noticably disheveled.

"Well look who decided to grace us with their presence." Timmy grinned, half with humour and half just for the sake of mocking. Hunger made the always sweet hero a bit rude, not that he liked it or anything, but it was a bad habit.

"We are not the only ones who are tardy." Sky said in a matter-of-factly tone.

"What were you guys doing anyway? You are like twenty minutes late." Tecna asked.

"Um..." Bloom uttered, her face flushed.

"Just...settling in you know." The King of Eraklyon shrugged.

"Right." Timmy's voice was dripping with sarcasm but he let it go.

"Today was..." Helia started.

"Let's not talk about today man. Let's talk about um...the weather. It's nice right?" Sky shook his head in disbelief. What was he saying?

"Right Sky! It's lovely because I love getting drenched in the pouring rain." A familiar sing song voice was heard from somewhere behind and slowly the fairy of music took a seat beside Bloom.

"Who doesn't?" Sky was quick to retort, shrugging, a foolish grin on his face.

"Are you and Layla all settled?" Flora spoke, peering at her friend.

"Ya." The guardian of music nodded, smiling.

"Is she..?" The keeper of dragon flame looked at Musa who just shook her head.

"No, she's not coming. She's with Nabu and he's resting right now."

"I was so..." Sky started, frowning in search of the right word to express himself. "So stunned to see him today, just standing there. I am _so_ glad that he's alright. I thought we lost him."

"Yes. He's been through so much." Helia agreed. When they were called for this mission, this was the last thing that they had expected to happen and it had taken some time for all of them to come to terms with the fact that Nabu was alright. That he was...alive and well and good. And their happiness had no boundaries. Getting back a lost friend. This made everything alright. Everything worthwhile. All those dark creatures, Duman, the dark side effect, anything. The squad swore that they would go through all of this a million times if it was for Nabu.

"Yes he has." Morgana agreed, snapping everyone out of their thoughts. Nebula and Morgana were seated right in front of them now, just one empty chair was left behind now.

"And you don't know how sorry we are for that." Nebula added, guilt marring her voice.

The dinning room, Tecna noted was too spacious from what it looked like from outside, behind the door. And it was meticulously decorated, just like every other room in the palace. God knows, how many rooms were in this castle. The table was squeaky black, polished to perfection and made out of mahogany wood. It rather looked too intricate to be true. Hunger was taking its toll over everyone and no one spoke any further and the dinner was finally served.

A large squeak was heard as someone opened the door recklessly to get through. Everyone knew who it was already. The burgundy haired hero was fashionably late and casually made his way towards the table in silence and sat on the only empty chair that the table had on offer. Which was, to his surprise right beside Musa and he was more than happy to sit beside her.

"Hey..." Riven nodded to no one in particular and everyone returned his greeting with a small nod of their own. Even Musa gave him a quick acknowledgement before diving in for food.

"Wow." The magenta eyed hero's eyes widened at the amount of food that was being served to him. This wasn't a dinner he realised, this was a feast. Morgana smiled encouragingly at him. And so began the feast.

"This is the least we can do for you all." The Queen said.

* * *

The wizard was fast asleep on the bed and Layla sat by him on a stool, her turquoise eyes gazing at his face. He looked so serene right now. Calm and peaceful. Someone by the name of Ciara had just finished with her sprinkling and had finally left them both alone and much to the aquatic fairy's surprise, the sprinkling of healing water had failed to wake up the still sleeping wizard. Shuffling to his side, his eyes fluttered open and a sudden smile spread across his face.

"Layla..."

"How are you?" The princess of Andros was quick to ask.

"You know you can't stay here forever. You should go. Eat somet-"

"No." Layla cut him short in protest and Nabu smiled wider.

"I am never leaving your side again." The fairy whispered, her tone final and if possible, the wizard's smile grew even wider.

"I am not complaining, love. It's just that you must be tired." Nabu tried reasoning with her but she just shook her head.

"I am fine. You need something?" Layla abandoned her spot on the stool, walking towards the small table near the window. Grasping a glass full of water in her hand, she walked back, handing it to him. He gulped the water down in one breath.

"You want some more?"

"No. Stay." Nabu said with a tinge of urgency. "Just stay."

"I will." She reassured him, sitting back down on the stool. "Even if you don't want me to."

"Why would you say that?" Nabu chuckled as if she had said something completely ridiculous. Layla knew that she should tell him about Nex, but she also knew that she won't be able to. It occurred to her that at the very least, she should charge her phone and probably turn on the inter-dimensional system on it so that she could inform Nex that everyone was alright. He must be worried sick. Unlike planet earth, the high tech phones in Magix worked on the purest form of energy, with their very own portable chargers that just needed a few boosts of magical dust and they were good to go. She was sure that the last time she checked, Musa had a charger with her.

"I don't know." The fairy finally shrugged.

"The only thing that kept me going in that Black Dimension was the idea of coming back to you." Nabu whispered, reaching out to stroke Layla's cheek. Another feeling of guilt crushed down on her like a tidal wave.

"I've missed you so much." Layla admitted.

"Well...not as much as I have." The wizard let out another chuckle. "It was horrible. There used be these...um voices that followed me around. And it felt like I was living my last day again and again and again. It was vicious cycle. I closed the portal, defeated the wizards and then everything used to black out. I kept running towards this source of light and..." Nabu gasped for breath.

"And then black out and everything would just repeat again after that." Nabu continued. Layla's eyes grew wide in horror. Oh, how she wished that time would just turn back and she would never let any of this happen again.

"Oh my gosh, Nabu." The princess gasped. "Morgana told us that they had do a summoning spell with crystal to help you out."

"Really?" Nabu frowned.

A hard knock was heard on the door and Layla got up, ambling towards the door.

"It's probably the others, checking on you." She whispered, turning the door knob.

* * *

After meeting with Nabu and Stella, everyone had decided to head back to their rooms. Layla had joined Musa in the room shortly because Nabu needed rest and she was just keeping him awake. Now, as the fairy of music tossed and turned around, she glanced at her side, to see a very exhausted Layla, fast asleep on the other bed. There was something uncanny about this room, Musa thought. It was comfortable. Too comfortable maybe. When Musa was certain that sleep was a luxuary her brain won't be able to afford, she got out of her bed, shoving her phone in her pocket. Slowly, striving hard not to wake Layla up, she creaked the bedroom door open, letting herself out. Their room was just beside Flora and Helia's, skipping through the dimly lit hallway, Musa kept walking, passing by Stella and Brandon's room, with an urgency to suddenly stop at a door she knew she shouldn't stop by. He must be inside right now, probably sleeping since it was almost midnight and everyone was too tired to roam around the corridors like her. For some inexplicable reason, she considered knocking over his door but deliberately stopped herself from doing it. Letting out a sigh of exasperation, the guardian of music continued walking, her legs dragging. Maybe she should text Jared that they were all fine. Or maybe later. Right now, she just needed to walk. Nabu had told them all about some 'Hall of Fame', where their statues were and since she couldn't sleep, she might as well do some sightseeing. There were millions of doors in this palace. If not, there were even more. One of the doors had caught her attention, brushing her fingers against the door knob, she prompted the door to open. It wasn't the beautiful 'Hall of Fame' and she wasn't surprised. This castle was a maze, and the songstress wondered how could someone even live here. But this wasn't a normal room like she had expected, the door had opened to a balcony. And the view that overlooked it was simply magnificent. Slowly, awe-struck, she walked forward, resting her hands on the gold-painted railing, her eyes never leaving the view that the balcony had on offer. To the fairy's surprise, the sky above was clear for once. It had stopped raining for a while and the stars had taken over the sky now. A beautiful water body could be seen far away, it's surface glimmering, surrounded by thick luscious forest, the view was breathtakingly beautiful. Even if it was dark, the moon-lit surroundings looked beautiful. All of this was marred, when a flapping sound was heard from somewhere below. A creature, was flying straight up, too dark to be distinguished from the surroundings. It was one of the dark creatures, Musa figured but it was too late to act because the monster was already diving in, aiming for Musa. Caught off guard, the fairy let a small scream escape her lips. Before the musical fairy could react, a violet laser-boomerang hit the creature's head and it plummeted down, the weapon, swiftly changed its path to go back to it's owner and Musa didn't feel the need to turn around to know who it was.

"Are you alright?" The magenta eyed specialist asked, crossing his arms across his chest, the boomerang hanging loosely in one of his hands.

"Yes." Musa gave the hero a feeble smile, turning around to look at him.

"Good." He nodded. "Now, would you care to explain, what the hell were you doing here?" Riven sounded annoyed.

"Huh...I was just looking around." Musa's smile turned into a frown. "What the hell are you doing here? Did you follow me?"

"Right! Looking around at this time?" The hero decided to ignore her other two questions.

"Yes. I can do whatever I want." The fairy said, hugging her hands to her torso.

"You don't understand. It's dangerous out there. With all the dark creatures lurking around the corner."

"I don't understand?" Musa's brows flew up. "I don't understand?" The songstress felt the need to repeat her sentence.

"Clearly." Riven stated, nodding, a bit calm now.

"Huh..." Musa's phone vibrated in her pocket and she gave him a 'this is not over' look before attending the call.

"Hello?" She pressed the phone softly to her ear. It was a call from an unknown number and not the kind of video-hologram-calls that she was used to receiving. The fairy's beautiful azure eyes widened in horror. It took Riven by surprise just how fast the transition was for her to be from annoyed to terrified in a second. Something was wrong, he could sense it, shifting his weight on his right foot, he waited for her to hang up.

"Okay." She whispered, as a small tear rolled down her face, putting her phone back.

"What's wrong?" The hero tried his best to conceal his panic.

"It's my dad."

"What about him?" Riven looked at her closely.

"He..." Musa struggled for words. "He just had a heart attack."

And that was it, Riven engulfed her in his arms, neither of them saying another word as he slowly stroked her hair and Musa let him.

 ** _So, nothing much happened in this one. Let me know what you think. Once again, I would like to thank you all for reading, favouriting, following and reviewing my fic. Means a lot! Shout out to the people who reviewed the last chap:_**

 ** _Sd: Thank-you! I am glad that you are liking it so far. xx :)_**

 ** _Guest: Aw...you made my day. Thank you! xx :)_**

 ** _MeltingLove: Aw..thank you. I am soo happy that you are liking this story. You are just the sweetest! Thanks for the support! xx :)_**

 _ **AlexisPeany: Thanks! I am glad you liked the last chapter! Hope you like this one too. And you are a great fanfcitioner too! xx ;)**_

 _ **All the love. Peace out!**_


	12. Chapter 12 - The wait for light

**Chapter 1** **2 - The wait for light  
**

Drip. Drip. Drip. It had started raining again and not just a bearable drizzle, it was raining as if it will never stop. Bloom, Stella, Layla, Flora and Tecna let go of Musa, parting away from the group hug. Everyone had woken up in the middle of the night, to hear this bad news. The fairy of music walked back to a corner of her room, searching for something.

 _" Your dad just had a heart attack, Musa. We are taking him to the hospital. Get here as soon as possible."_ Chase's voice rang in Musa's ears. In fact, the conversation she had with him awhile ago on the phone was all she could hear.

"Soo I'll leave this place and call my uncle. He will pick me up with his auto jet transporter." Musa was saying, fighting back tears that she knew won't cease as she fiddled around for her shoes. Riven and Sky exchanged a worried look, as they stood by, watching her.

"Musa, auto jet transporters won't be able to withhold the earth's atmosphere." Timmy tried reasoning with her, hoping to change her mind.

Riven had to call everyone to let them know about all this. Just when he thought that this day couldn't get any worse. It was safe to say that this was one of the most exhausting days in the magenta haired hero's entire existence.

"Musa." Brandon took a step towards her. "What are you doing? You can't go out right now."

"I have to." Musa retorted, not bothering to turn around as she finally found her shoes.

"Musa. Chase called me too." Tecna intervened.

"Really? When?" Musa spun around, her voice noticeably shaking.

"Just a few minutes ago. He said you weren't picking up your phone."

"What was he saying?" Chase was Musa's cousin brother, her uncle Daniel's and aunt Madeline's son. They were the only family they had got in Melody. Otherwise, it was just Musa and her dad, Hoboe. Since her childhood they were the only family Musa knew, her grandparents had passed away even before she was born.

"He's with your dad in the hospital right now. So is your uncle and your aunt. He's fine now." The fairy of technology informed. Musa's eyes darted towards the small table where her phone was abandoned and she could see that it was blinking from all the missed calls she had gotten. Walking towards the table, she glanced at the screen of her mobile to see 15 missed calls from Chase, 11 from her uncle and 13 from her aunt. Sighing, the musical fairy shoved it in one of her jeans pocket.

"Well...maybe...I'll find our ship and fix it you know?" Musa whispered, her voice shaking with uncertainty.

"Musa..." Bloom started.

"Don't you 'Musa' me." The guardian of music shot back and instantaneously regretted it. "I am sorry Bloom I just..."

"I understand. But we can't let you go now." Bloom said.

"But I have to go guys."

"With all those monsters outside, its too dangerous." Layla tried to reason with her.

"I don't care." The fairy of music shook her head as she started towards the door.

"Try to understand, please." Stella begged.

"Those are not just monsters Musa. They will absorb all your energy." Nabu stated, while the fairy just kept on walking.

"And the ship...you won't be able to fix it. Please don't go." Flora murmured.

"Well. I'll figure something out." Musa called back, her dark blue eyes met his violet ones. He was standing the nearest to the door, blocking the way. Leaning over, Musa reached for the doorknob, aware of their proximity. The door squeaked open and the fairy tried to manuveur her way out, slowly trudging towards the threshold.

"Musa." Riven breathed, grabbing her by her wrist.

"Let me go, Riven." The songstress flinched at his touch and he automatically loosened his grip a bit while Musa struggled to sound harsh and failed miserably.

"Where?" The magenta haired hero asked her softly, prompting her to spin around to face him.

"He's..." She peered at him. His amethyst eyes were silently pleading as he continued staring at her with that look and she couldn't hold it in any longer. A small tear managed to escape and Riven was quick to wipe it off. "He's...my father, Riven."

"He will be fine." The specialist assured her, his hand still snug around hers.

"He's right. You will feel better if you talk to Chase." The fairy of technology muttered as Musa broke away from his hold. "It was just a minor heart attack, Musa. He's fine now. Just call Chase."

"But..." Musa's lips trembled, not turning towards her friends all the while purposefully averting Riven's gaze. "I still need to see him, guys."

"And you will. The first thing that we will do when we get out of this place is go to Melody. Trust me, Musa." Bloom said, her voice surprisingly calm.

"You think I'll be able to wait that long?" Musa clenched her fists, determined to leave at any cost.

"Musa. You know very well that the dark creatures are too strong at nighttime. They will drain every single ounce of your magic, drop by drop, leaving behind...nothing. We are not letting you go." Tecna's voice sounded panicked yet dismissive. And she was right. Musa did know how dangerously lethal it was for a fairy, who was not able to transform on the top of everything, to be exposed to that kind of suffocating dark energy and not to mention the vile dark creatures who will drain her of all her powers. And no fairy, ever had survived without powers. No one.

"But..." Musa moved towards the door once again only to get blocked by Riven.

"Listen Musa. Just wait till the sun comes up, okay? Then we will find the ship and fix it. Just a few hours Musa, its almost day already." Riven's voice echoed around the room.

Don't know what came over the fairy of music, call it rage or just pure pain for her father but something moved inside her.

"Well, what do you know Riven? Huh? You don't even have a family." Musa's eyes went wide in horror when the realization hit her that the words that were spoken just now were indeed hers. The room went erriely silent. No one had seen that coming. Everyone knew very well that Riven's past was something no one talked about, it was a sensitive topic and no one dared dwell on it. Musa searched Riven's face for a reaction. Nothing. He just stood there, planted to the ground, still as a painting.

"You are right." Riven fianlly whispered, pursing his lips. "But you know what? You going out there and getting yourself killed is not going to help your sick father." And with that, the hero left the room, walking away into the hallway, pushing his hands in his pockets.

* * *

Power rushed into his veins. He could feel himself getting stronger by every passing second. He never wanted this intoxicating feeling to end. The 'I-stone' rested in the palm of his hand, with a quick motion, he placed the stone in one of the small cavities that he had made in his armour just for it. Perfect fit. A lightening strike was heard somewhere behind Tir Nan Og, illuminating the castle for a split second. Now that he had the powers, he had this urge to go test it. Might as well say hello to some of his old friends in there. Duman smiled at the thought. And while he was at it, he might as well find out the location of his brothers. There were so many places in the Magic Dimension where the pathetic fairies could have trapped them. What these weaklings didn't comprehend was that his brothers were too strong to be trapped. They were all the wizards of the dark circle for crying out loud. They all had been around even when these sorry creatures weren't even born. Now that he had it all, power and energy, he knew that he should free his brothers. And soon, they will all be together, ruling this planet. The emerald green stone gleamed when another bolt of lightening was seen. This place was dripping with dark energy right now, if anything, making the wizard even more stronger than he already was. Ishild's stone was working. Now all Duman needed was someone to practice these new powers on. Any one will do.

"Let's go see how the lovely fairies are doing." Duman grinned, trudging back towards the palace. It wasn't far away and the wizard did not mind walking right now. Even if he could have just teleported right in the middle of the Crown Room, Duman thought that he would save all the magic for the last. A good old-fashioned knock on the door was dramatic enough.

The wizard continued walking towards the castle with no rush, enjoying the small moment of victory. The fairies had won their battle, but the wizards were going to win the war. That he was sure of.

"I am coming for you brothers." The wizard said while his legs kept moving. The sky above was overcast and the rain had intensified. Knowing that he was responsible for such disturbance on the planet made Duman chuckle in a very conceited way.

"Well, well." Duman had almost reached the palace entrance.

A large thud was heard when the grand doors of the castle opened and Duman frowned, knowing that it wasn't him who had prompted them to unlatch. A blurry figure came out, as it started towards where the sorcerer stood.

"Huh." A grin spread across Duman's face. A malicious grin.

The figure continued walking towards the wizard and Duman's grin widened.

"Might as well, try on this one."

* * *

"Damn Musa. How about picking up your phone once in awhile?" Chase sounded a bit relieved on the other end of the line. Musa's phone was drained and needed a magic dust boost so phone calls was all it could do for now.

"How is dad?"

"He's fine now. The doctor says that he needs to slow things down a bit. It was just a minor attack and he is in a very stable condition right now. He's resting." Musa's cousin replied.

"That's good." A beautiful smile spread across the musical fairy's face and her heart calmed down a tad. "Can I talk to him?"

"You know what Musa? I would have let you talk to him but the doctors don't want him to be disturbed. Am sorry." Chase sighed.

"Oh. Okay." Disappointed, Musa let out a sigh herself.

"Don't worry though. He will be fine. We are here for him. And hey, Tecna told about the whole situation you people are in right now so...don't risk anything. Okay? Just be safe." Chase said, sounding too mature for his age. Even when he was like seventeen.

"I'll be there, Chase. I promise." The songstress said earnestly.

"Yeah. Okay. Soo...Tecna still dating that Timmy huh?" Chase's voice sounded eager for a negation but none came from Musa's side. The fairy smiled at her cousin's attempt to distract her from the all the tension. She was well aware of Chase's crush on her best friend that he had developed when Tecna had paid her a visit at her home planet.

"Yeah Chase. But she still thinks that you are adorable." Musa chuckled.

"Huh? Adorable? Did you tell her that I have grown into this super sexy man now?"

"Uh ha. But well, you are still adorable." The fairy heard a loud grunt over the line and smiled even wider.

"Alright. I gotta go now. I'll see you in awhile won't I?"

"Yeah you will." Musa replied. Relieved to have that heaving pain be lifted from her chest

"I'll be there in like six hours I guess. As soon as the darkness clears out and we fix the ship." Musa added.

"Bye Musa. Take care alright."

"Bye Chase."

As soon as Musa hung up the phone, the stinging pain was back. Musa knew too well that she won't be able to calm down until her eyes landed on her dad. Until she herself saw with her very own eyes that he was fine.

"You feel better, now?" Tecna whispered from her place on Musa's bed.

"Yeah, a bit. Chase says that he is resting right now."

"Good." Bloom smiled.

"The sun will be up soon." Flora assured her. The guys had all gone with Timmy to see if something could be done before hand to help find the ship any faster, and of course to check on Riven to stop him from doing something completely stupid that they all knew he was very capable of. Layla had taken Nabu back to his room as he was getting weak again. Musa had insisted Stella to go back to her room too so that she could rest for a few hours that were left and the fairy of the sun and the moon had gladly obliged, too exhausted to fight. So right now, it was just Bloom, Flora, Tecna and Musa in the room.

"I hope so." Musa gave Flora a meek smile before taking a seat on her bed beside Bloom and Tecna.

"I feel so stupid, you know?" The songstress admitted. "He must be hurt. I had no right to say that to him."

"I am sure he will understand, Musa." The keeper of the dragon flame let out a sympathetic smile.

"We are talking about Riven here, Bloom."

"Well, it's not like you meant it. Right?"

"Right." The fairy of music agreed, heaving a sigh.

"You think I should go and apolo-" Musa was cut short by a hard knock on the door. Flora abandoned her place on one of the fancy armchairs provided in the room, walking towards the door.

"Hey, Brandon." Flora gave the brown eyed specialist a warm smile, letting him in.

"Hey, Flora." The squire said. "By any chance did Riven decide to pay you all a sudden visit or something?"

"No, why?" Musa answered, a frown registering her features.

"Because..." Brandon looked at her. "We are not able to find him anywhere in the palace."

 _ **I kinda uploaded this one in a hurry actually. I'll try to make the next one more longer. Anyways what did you guys think? Let me know. And I would like to thank you all for reading and supporting me. I read the reviews for the last chapter and couldn't stop smiling for like a day. I was just sitting there like, 'Wow people actually like my story?' Thank you all so much. Stay tuned for the next one. Am super excited for it! All the love. Peace out  
**_


	13. Chapter 13 - Words

**Chapter 13 - Words  
**

Drip. Drip. Drip. It did not look like a great day for an outdoor examination. But the headmaster of the school of heroics and bravery always chose the rainy season for imperative tests. Headmaster Saladin had, much to the paladin's surprise, not announced anything about the Examination Hall and Nex now found himself caught in the middle of the rain as he jogged towards the stables of the dragons. He had searched the whole Red Fountain for Saladin, every room where the Headmaster could possibly be, his office, the classrooms, the gym, the weapons chamber but all in vain. There were two sections of dragon chambers in the school. One was on the last floor of the school and the other one, the one which Nex was headed towards, was built outside, right behind the main infrastructure of Red Fountain. The chambers were dripping wet with water, their off-white paint waning in the rain, looking even paler, if that was even possible. The enormous metalled doors of the chambers were wide open, contrast to being sealed shut like they usually were, as if welcoming him. With another cautious step, Nex walked inside the chambers, his eyes wide in alarm. The paladin had learned a lot about the Course-E examination, how it was something you would never expect. The Paladin had thus, tried his best to prepare himself for this test. This was the final exam in his trainee teacher course and then that would be it. The chambers were empty, except for the howling dragons inside. Not even a single guard in the stables and this bothered the paladin more than it should. Something told him that he had finally reached his destination.

"Professor Saladin?" Nex's voice bounced back at him, his legs trudging forward.

Clenching his hands into fists, the paladin got in a fighting stance, knowing that something will happen any moment now.

"What are you doing fighting with the air Nex?" Someone called, the paladin, already recognising the voice, swiveled around to greet the owner of it.

"Good morning, professor." Nex said, his eyes registering the huge dragon that was in front of him, his teacher perched on it.

"You have completed the first stage. Well done." Saladin nodded at his student, the reins of the dragon held loosely in his hands. "You have found the examiner. Now let us commence...the _exam._ "

"Yes, sir!" Nex did not like the way the word 'exam' had rolled out of Saladin's tounge, making it sound more like a punishment than a test.

"Now go find your ride." Saladin said in a rather senile voice, bobbing his head towards the stables of the dragons.

"Yes, sir!" Nex repeated his own words before ambling in the direction his teacher had pointed at.

This training here at Red Fountain had been hectic, filled with all kinds of dragons and other creatures and now, Nex was quiet baffled, not knowing what to do with information the Headmaster had given him.'Your ride?' What was he supposed to do? Go fetch himself a dragon or jog back in the rain and find himself some other creature or a squad ship perhaps? Why was the final of this course so cryptic anyway. Just tell the students what to do. Crossing his arms across his chest, the paladin grunted as the section of dragons started. Nex made a mental note to warn Thoren of this exam when he will be back from Eraklyon. He could feel a pair of eyes on him now and Nex smiled when his eyes met her soft large brown ones. Dew. She was a beautiful healthy dragon, her skin a magnificent shade of flaming red. And from day one in this training course, Nex had felt a strange kind of a connection with the animal. Her intelligent eyes sparkled as Nex slipped his hand behind the iron bars of the cage to slowly stroke her head.

"How's my little Dew doing today, huh?"

A low rumble erupted from Dew's long neck which Nex took as a response. This might be crazy but sometimes, Nex felt like she could understand his words. His language. Her large brown eyes were too intelligent for her to be dismissed as some stupid creature used just for the sake of riding. Walking towards a side wall to collect all the riding equipment, Nex strolled back towards Dew's enclosure.

"Alright girl. I am taking you with me on this test." Nex whispered as his hands slowly unlocked the cage. The key to ride a dragon successfully was simply just letting them know that you mean no harm and are as gentle as the animal itself. Obediently, Dew bent her neck down while Nex slipped the gear around her torso. Slowly but with a certain amount of professionalism, Nex climbed on Dew's back when all the gear was set. Letting her out of the stables, the paladin joined Saladin.

"Very well. Now lets go for a ride shall we?" The Headmaster whispered, manuevering his dragon towards the exit and Nex and Dew were close behind.

* * *

With his hands still in his pockets, the magenta haired specialist continued walking, leaving behind a few very tired and exhausted looking guard fairies at the doors. The grand doors of the palace, to the specialist's surprise were quiet easy to open and Riven was out in a few fleeting moments, out in the incessant down pour of rain. His violet eyes blinked as cold wind hit his skin, inducing a shiver to run down his spine. It wasn't like he could sleep now.

 _Might as well do something productive, right?_ Riven thought bitterly, marching forward in the darkness that had engulfed him from all the four directions. Darkness had never bothered the hero. Feelings. Feelings bothered him and right now he felt...the specialist shook his head, not knowing what exactly it was that he felt. Even if you were the best orator in the whole damned Magic Dimension, breaking Riven's walls was a feat that could just be deemed impossible. Impossible, _if_ of course you weren't her. She always found a way to somehow make him lower his guard down and feel things that even he couldn't go around explaining to himself. Musa always had that kind of effect on him. Always.

 _Damn that pixie._

Timmy had showed him the percise location of their squad ship and if he wasn't wrong, it was somewhere behind Tir Nan Og, probably three miles at most, somewhere in the forest. He might as well find the ship and fix it, right?

 _ **You don't even have a family**_ _,_ Musa's voice rang in his ears.

Family. Family...family? The word sounded alien to the hero. It always had. In fact it always sounded so unnatural to the specialist that he loathed it. Families never made sense to Riven. Never had and maybe...never will. Even though somewhere deep down Riven knew that he hoped that someday maybe the case would be different. The rain kept pouring down as Riven kept walking forward, trees blurring past him. Reaching for a pocket in his uniform, the hero retrieved a hovering metal-light ball and switched it on. His path was instantaneously lit and Riven walked on towards where he thought the ship was, letting the memory take over.

 _ **"You think you can steal something from me and get away with it?" The man whispered, snatching back the loaf of bread from the little kid's hand.**_

 _ **"You better say something you useless, dirty street rat." He was angry, the child could say. Covered in dirt and mud, the kid struggled to break the shopkeeper's hold as a small tear rolled down his cold cheek. The man was now dragging him outside the shop, his hand tight around the child's hand. Too tight that it hurt. It will be sore for days, the kid knew.**_

 _ **"I am going to teach you a lesson you pile of dirt." The man screamed, his eyes blood rimmed and the child could feel something bubbling up inside of him. Fear. Pain. And more fear. The man, with an enormous amount of force, rose his hand for a slap and the child closed his eyes in anticipation, waiting for the stinging pain to come. BAM! It was a hard hit , right across the child's face and his violet eyes let out even more tears.**_

 _ **"Huh, did that hurt kid?" The shopkeeper whispered, peering into his violet eyes.**_

 _ **"Did it?" His voice rang in the child's ears as his vision was blurred by his own tears.**_

 _ **"DID IT?!" The man's grip tightened around his tiny hand.**_

 _ **"Speak you rat!" The shopkeeper had grabbed his close cropped magenta hair now, swinging his head around like a rag doll.**_

 _ **"Yes..." The child murmured in a low voice, fidgeting around, striving to break free but the man held on to him as if his whole life depended on shackling the little kid , torturing him.**_

 _ **"Good!" If anything, his anger had intensified as a dirty grin spread across his face. "It should."**_

 _ **The man went in for another slap, but was stopped abruptly by a hand. The shopkeeper turned around to see who it was. The kid gazed at his saviour too, looking up to register silver hair and an ornate golden staff.**_

 _ **"What do you think you are doing, Raymond?" The old man said in a rather strict voice.**_

 _ **"He's a thief Saladin. I am telling you. He is a pest to Magix."**_

 _ **"He's a kid. Let him go." The man, whose name was Saladin perhaps, said. The aggressive shop owner had let go of the child and his violet eyes now inspected his hand for any bruises. His hand had turned purple with a nasty bruise and the kid knew that it won't take long to convert into black. This was a huge mistake on his part. The child was the best on the streets, someone to be respected. Someone to not mess with. How did he get caught? How? The kid continued frowning at his hand, too tired to try and make a run for it. The worse that could happen now was that he could be sent to the Magix Child Improvement Centre, where he could spend three months, provided with shelter and food. That wasn't that bad actually. Really. In the background, the two men continued to bicker for some time before the shopkeeper gave the child one last glare and walked away, away towards his store.**_

 _ **"How old are you, child?" The old man had asked him.**_

 _ **The old man seemed good enough. Atleast good enough to save him when the others were too busy ignoring the fact that there was man, who was beating a child in the middle of the street, in broad daylight.**_

 _ **"12." The kid finally whispered.**_

 _ **"12? Do you have any family?"**_

 _ **"No..."**_

 _ **"Well, what is your name son?"**_

 _ **"Ri..." The kid stuttered.**_

 _ **"Ri is it?" The old man frowned.**_

 _ **"Riven."**_

 _ **"Well, you will have a family now son."**_

Something rolled down the specialist's cheek and he knew for a fact that it wasn't a rain drop. Not bothering to give any kind of notice to it, he kept walking Headmaster of Red Fountain always said that he saw this potential in Riven's eyes that made him a true hero. After four years of hosteling Riven, Saladin had decided to put Riven in the school of heroics and bravery and Riven couldn't be thankful enough. But he always failed to show that. Not that he didn't try. He hated letting Saladin down for anything. Anything. He tried his best to stay out of trouble. The sophomore year of school however, was terrifyingly bad. Thanks to Darcy. As memories kept crashing around in his head, a small gleam could be seen at the end of the trail. A light smile spread across the specialist's features.

 _The ship, finally!_

The magenta haired hero jogged on, surprised to have not come across any kind of dark creature. Maybe Morgana was right and those pests were only attracted by magical beings. The specialist jogged on, almost ran towards the ship, too preoccupied to see that someone was stalking right behind him. Someone darker than the dark creatures. Someone who was fully capable of making the so called dark creatures sulk under a rock.

"Going somewhere?" Riven's ears registered a low voice and the hero was quick to swivel around.

"Duman?" Riven frowned, not believing his own eyes for a second. Out of all the people who could have been here!

"Well...it's been a long time." An evil grin spread across the wizard's face and Riven returned it with ease.

"So you really are alive, huh?" The magenta haired hero reached for the violet phantoblade in his pocket, pulling it out with one quick flick of his wrist.

"The weapon is out already? Scared?" The sorcerer challenged, taking a huge stride towards the hero.

"Huh. I have seen you die once, _Duman._ " Riven said the last word as of it as if it was poison to his tongue. "And I was sorry...because I wasn't the one responsible for your demise."

"Nabu just caught me off guard." The wizard's grin grew wider.

"We both know what a lie it is." And with that, the hero charged, his hand tight around the hilt, his violet eyes fixed at the target. Duman let out a small laugh before disappearing into thin air only to appear right behind the specialist, elbowing his head.

"That's all you got?" Duman whispered, chuckling.

"Fight like a man. Not like a cowardly dog." Riven recovered from the blow in a snap of fingers, angling his body toward the sorcerer.

"So a dog, am I?" Duman said, before morphing his body into a wild beast like wolf, lunging at Riven. But Riven was quicker, swift as lightening, dodging and giving a round house kick right in the beast's face. The wolf lunged at him once again, howling and Riven professionally manuvered his way out, letting out a chuckle of his own, before slashing the beast's shoulder with his phantoblade. The wolf let out a small howl, morphing back. One look at Duman's face was enough to tell Riven that the wizard was angry now. Good.

"I don't have time for you." Duman said offhandedly as a ball of energy erupted from his palms, aimed right at Riven. The hero struggled to shield himself with his weapon and failed miserably, falling back a few steps behind.

"Aaahhh..." The magenta haired hero was quick to get up and charge yet again.

"Oh please." Duman sighed, running a hand through his pink Mohawk. With a snap of his fingers, Riven was on the ground again, withering in pain.

"Do you know how powerful I am? Huh? I don't have time for you bug." Duman slowly ambled towards the specialist, who was still on the ground, struggling to find a way to break free from the pain that had crashed down on him. "Now that I am back, I might as well have some fun right?" The wizard, chuckling, gave Riven's skull a kick. A good hard one. Riven knew that he should get up. He must. It was just that he couldn't. There was some supernatural force, pulling him down, twisting him like a rubber band. Duman was actually powerful, the hero realized.

"I can squish you when ever I want. But I have got someone else to squish first. Bug." With one last energy blast, the wizard vanished in thin air. Gone. But the pain was till there. Something thick trickled down the hero's head and Riven reached for it, instantly regretting it. Blood. A lot of it. The magenta haired specialist slowly closed his eyes, as everything shrivelled, and shrieked, before turning into complete screaming darkness.

 _ **So, this wasn't as long as I promised. It's just that I couldn't get myself to write anything. Went through a really bad breakup. And god, I miss him. But well, life goes on. And I read your reviews and just has this urge to upload, so I did. Hope I didn't disappoint you all. Sorry if I couldn't reply to your reviews. I will on the next one. And well, let me know what you think. It means a lot that you guys take the time to review! Really! Thank-you for reading once again. Stay tuned! All the love. Peace out! :)**_


	14. Chapter 14 - The more the better

**Chapter 14 - The more the better**

Drip. Drip. Drip. The rain had threateningly intensified, to the point that Brandon feared that the forest might actually flood. Earth was in a bad condition and the squire didn't want to imagine what would happen if, God forbid, any more stones were lost. Timmy, Helia and Sky continued debating, when the answer was right in front of them. Tearing his eyes away from the window, the brown eyed specialist started towards the small group of girls perched on the bed near him.

"How you doing?" Brandon looked at Musa, before taking a seat beside her.

"He..." The fairy did not look up from her hands. "He's out there...because of...me." Her azure eyes finally met his dark brown ones. Her voice sounded heavy with guilt.

"It's no one's fault." The hero assured her. "It's Riven for crying out loud. You can leave him inside a volcano and he will be fine." Brandon grinned.

"He's right." Bloom agreed, a smile of her own was displayed on her lips.

"I predict a ninety eight percent chance of survival, Musa." The fairy of technology whispered.

"Well, what about the other two percent?"

"He will be fine." Flora chimed. Brandon had found Stella asleep in their room and he didn't dare to wake her up. The princess of the sun and the moon was exhausted and she looked like a peaceful angel, with her eyes closed and that serene expression on her face while sleeping. Layla was still with Nabu downstairs.

"We can't just leave them alone." Helia was saying as Brandon let out a sigh and walked over to join the specialists, who were right now, standing in the middle of Musa's room, right below the perfectly lit chandelier.

"And we are not." The squire joined in the conversation. "I'll go with Timster, here." He nodded at Timmy. "And you guys stay with the girls."

"I don't know man." Sky was quick to object. "It's dangerous out there. The more the better."

"Sky, Timmy is sure that Riven went after the squad ship, so it's a safe bet to locate the ship and maybe...we will find him on the way. And besides someone needs to stay with the girls." Brandon tried reasoning with the King of Eraklyon.

"I did show him the exact location of the ship on my portable screen. And since he did not take his phone with him, I can't track him so the ship's all we got." The spectacled specialist contributed, nodding.

"Well, I am coming with you." Sky said in tone that suggested that he would no longer dwell on the topic, whatsoever.

"And so are we." The keeper of the dragon flame announced and Brandon couldn't help but roll his eyes at the couple. God, these two could be tough sometimes. He watched, as the girls ambled towards their group.

"No, going out right now for a fairy is dangerous. Please understand girls." Helia's voice, as always, was calm and composed inducing Brandon to wonder how exactly can someone be this collected all the time. Seriously.

"Yes." Sky agreed, locking his eyes with her warm blue ones. "So it's decided then. We will be leaving in ten minutes and Helia will be staying here with you all."

Brandon let out another sigh, shaking his head at his King, before letting it go. Maybe Sky was right, the more the better.

"Alright then." With that, the brunette left the room, closing the door softly behind him, walking away towards his room. He found the room quick enough, it wasn't far, just beside Helia's and Flora's, turning the door knob around to let himself in, all the while, being as quiet as possible, not wanting to wake up his sleeping beauty. The specialist was greeted by a well lit room, indicating that Stella indeed was awake. Brandon's eyes scanned the room for her, but they were just met with an empty bed, empty armchairs and an empty room as a whole.

"Stella?!" The panic was heard loud and clear in his voice.

 _One missing person at a time please._

"Stella?!"

"Brandon? I am in here." A voice called from somewhere inside the room and the sound of running water calmed him down instantly. Walking towards the bathroom, he made a soft knock on the door.

"When did you wake up, babe?"

"Just now." Stella's voice was hushed over the sound of shower.

"Whatcha doing in there?" A sly smile spread on his lips.

"Showering. Wanna join?" Brandon could tell that Stella was smiling right now too. As extremely intriguing that idea seemed, Brandon had to say no.

"Nah, Stel. We are going out." The squire called, walking away at the end of the room to collect his Red Fountain uniform. Luckily, the heroes had brought an extra pair of clothes with them in a mini portable suitcase, that could be carried around in your pocket once closed. But Brandon preferred his uniform more during a mission because of the extra space that was provided in their pockets that held the weapons with ease (1). Yanking his green vest and white shirt off, the hero threw them at the unmade bed, before quickly changing into the yellow and blue body suit. The green jewel clasp that held his navy blue cape gleamed as he slipped his green broadsword and the Lance in one of the unseen pockets of his suit (2). Even when he was one of the trainee teachers at Red Fountain now, he was still obliged to wear the uniform. Red Fountain had strict rules and according to the schools curriculum, any learner must wear a uniform and Saladin believed that he and his squad were still learners and that they had to be taught to teach or something. But Brandon never complained, he had worn this uniform for six sturdy years already and not to mention that it was too comfortable to just let it go. A loud squeak was heard as the bathroom's door opened to unviel a rather disheveled Stella but her clothes hugged her torso perfectly. Her luscious blonde hair was a tad wet but she still somehow managed to look like a goddess, hitching Brandon's breath in his throat. The squire could feel a dreamy smile spread across his face as Stella made her way towards him.

"Hey beautiful." Brandon grinned but Stella just frowned at her boyfriend, her hands on her hips.

"What do you mean?" The Solarian continued frowning. "We are going out?"

"Oh." The hero sighed. "Not you. Just me and the guys."

"Right now?" This was the fairy's turn to panic now, her honey eyes fixated on his uniform. Brandon looked like he was ready to go already and Stella did not like that.

"Yeah. We lost Riven."

"What do you mean we lost him?"

"Let's just say that no one was keeping an eye on him and he ran away." The squire couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"What?" Stella was perplexed.

"Yeah...no one listened to me when I suggested that we tie him up in his room." The hero feigned disappointment, grinning.

"He left the palace? At this hour?"

"Yeah well, that's what happens when no one listens to me." Brandon smiled but dropped it when Stella looked up at him with absolute, utter disbelief. "He's all alone out there with all those monsters at their peak right now. He needs us."

"It's too dangerous. You are not going or...I am coming with you." The princess said stubbornly.

"Stella...it's more dangerous for you. I can't take that risk." His dark brown eyes were locked with her honey golden ones as he slowly reached down to kiss her on the temples.

"But -" Stella was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door. Giving his princess one last kiss softly on her lips, the hero parted away, walking towards the door.

"That's either Timmy or Sky."

* * *

Timmy pressed the trigger of his laser gun, aiming for the monster that was lunging at Sky right now. With perfect aim, the specialist let go of the trigger and it was a bullseye, hitting the monster right in its green bead like eye.

"I am really not liking this excursion, so far." The spectacled hero walked towards the King of Eraklyon, offering a hand to him, which Sky gladly took, abandoning his place on the ground.

"What are you talking about, Tim?" Brandon shouted, his Broadsword outstretched in his hands while he swiftly dodged another blow from the snake like dark creature. "Fighting monsters. Pouring rain. Heavy darkness and not to mention black tar liquid that could easily burn the hell out of you. I live for that stuff." The squire's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Aaah." With a quick flick of his wrist, the dark brown eyed hero aimed at the creature's eyes and successfully made the monster topple and fall down on the ground.

"Let's get out of here." Sky announced, inspecting the monster on the wet muddy ground. It won't take long for it to recover and the blond specialist was in no mood to fight it yet again.

"Yeah." Timmy agreed, letting Brandon take the lead as they started walking again.

"We are like two miles away from the palace and we are already fighting monsters." Brandon groaned, trudging forward.

"But isn't that what you live for, bro?" Sky was quick to retort and the squire groaned yet again and the blue eyed hero just grinned at that.

"Acid spitting, life-magic sucking monsters. No thank you. I like the nice ones." Brandon muttered, his hand gripped tightly around the hilt of his weapon as he marched on in the darkness, a small metal-light ball the only source to light up their path.

"A nice monster?" The King of Eraklyon grinned even wider.

"Dude, anything is...nicer than a dark creature." The squire didn't bother to turn around, his eyes fixed forward.

"I don't think that nicer is a proper word." Timmy mused. "But I am not sure."

"I don't see what's wrong in that. Nice, nicer, nicest. Sounds proper to me." Sky contributed further to the conversation and Brandon rolled his eyes.

"Tell me again, why I didn't bring Helia along instead of you two nerds?" The squire skidded to an abrupt halt to look at his two friends. Sky and Timmy carried on with their little conversation, taking no regard of Brandon.

"It can be a comparative adjective, yes. But I don't think that it sounds...proper you know?" The spectacled hero said.

"Hmm..." Sky pondered. "Define proper."

"Ugh..." The brown eyed hero groaned yet again, louder this time. "Guys please carry on. It's not like we have any problem bigger than that right now."

"Well, we are almost the there. The ship is about..." Timmy's hands flew around on his hand held computer. "Half a mile away now." Brandon welcomed the change in the conversation with a huge grin.

"Great. Now here's the plan. We will find him. Catch him. Take him back. Feed him and put him back to sleep, after fixing the ship of course." The squire laughed at the thought.

"He's not our pet Brandon." The blonde specialist had to laugh at that too.

"And you might want to tone down a bit if you don't want that pretty face of yours to be disfigured. He might be here somewhere." Timmy said, chuckling. The rest of the way was silent except for the sound of the relentless rain and a few flying dark creatures here and there. Sky had always loved the rainy season on Eraklyon but now he seriously wanted to rethink about his choice in that particular field. The rain was slowly getting on his nerves. His blue eyes registered a small ray of light and he was certain where it was coming from.

"Isn't that one of those hovering metal-light balls?" The King of Eraklyon asked to no one in particular, his eyes squinting in the darkness to take a good look around. They had reached a kind of clearing in the jungle. A small limp figure can be seen sprawled on the ground and the heroes sprinted towards it.

"Riven?!" Sky murmured softly, kneeling down to his level. The magenta haired hero did not look good, his eyes were closed and his head was visibaly bleeding and the hero's uniform was tattered on the shoulder. By the looks of it, the specialist had taken some serious damage, coughing, Riven twitched around before going limp again.

"Riven!" Timmy and Brandon said in unison, joining Sky down on the ground.

"You are going to die." Riven muttered, his eyes still closed as unconsciously, his hand threw a fist in the air, landing a good hit exactly on Brandon's cheek.

"Ow." The squire sounded annoyed. "Ya, that does sound like Riven." Brandon brushed his cheek with the back of his hand.

"Well, at least he found the squad ship." Timmy said, looking at their damaged squad ship up front. At the end of the clearing slightly damaged but not wrecked sat their squad ship and Timmy had to admit that he was a bit relieved that his Shooter had not crashed completely.

"What happened down here?" Sky looked around, only to realize that this wasn't a clearing in the forest. It was a clearing that was _made_ in the forest. The place smelled of a fight. Damaged to almost burning trees. The eerie silence that surrounded the place. And Riven. Someone who was capable of doing _that_ to _Riven_ must be strong. A feeling of unease settled inside the blue eyed specialist's stomach.

"Quick. Let's take him to the ship before he actually kills one of us." Brandon said. With no arguments there, the specialists carried their friend inside the squad ship. Brandon and Timmy had each of Riven's legs and Sky held both his hands. After putting him down, slowly on one of the sofa-seats in the lounging area of the ship, Timmy was off, trying to fix Shooter.

"We will sprinkle some of that healing water on him." Brandon was saying as both the heroes looked closely at Riven. His magenta hair was disheveled and muddy and his forehead was badly bleeding. To put it in a simple way, Riven did not look good.

"We need to stop the bleeding. Let me go grab the first aid." Sky started towards the small cabinets that their ship had on offer, just in the corner of the lounging room.

"Who do you think could have done that to him?" The brown eyed hero was worried. But he couldn't be blamed, so was Sky. Something terrible must have happened to their friend.

"I don't know man. But whoever it was, it was strong." The blonde specialist had found the kit and was retrieving some disinfectant from it. The specialists were trained for scenarios like this. Red Fountain prided itself in always having it's students be prepared for anything. The different courses that the school offered ranged from killing a hunter troll to dragon wrangling to of course First-aid. First-aid, Saladin used to say, was one of the most important thing that you needed to learn if you wanted to survive any battle. Healing someone, according to their wise Headmaster, was a form of art. Something that could save lives. Brandon remembered how they had a whole unit about First-aid in their sophomore year and how nerve-wackingly tiresome it used to be to memorise all those medical terms.

"All those lessons on First-aid finally paid off, huh?" The King of Eraklyon smiled at the brunette, as if reading his mind and the squire returned it.

"Yeah." Brandon had to agree to that as he watched Sky finish bandaging Riven's head.

* * *

"Alright now. What do you see down there?" His professor's voice rang in his ears.

"The black mud swamp." Nex said with a level of confidence. The test was going pretty well and the paladin had calmed down a bit now. Dew's wings were outstretched as she manuvered herself around to follow Saladin's dragon.

"And how would you define it? Give me the keywords." Another technical question. Easy.

"Marshy. Waterlogged. Hazardous. Diverse in flora and fauna." Nex couldn't hide his smile, as the words flew out of his mouth with perfect ease.

"Very well. Code?"

"Green."

"Good. Now what will you do if you have to take a class down there?"

"I will make sure that everyone is safe and on my radar. I am not supposed to lose anyone out there." The paladin said.

"Supposed to?" The headmaster's brows flew up.

"Allowed to." Nex corrected himself. The rain had reduced to an admissible drizzle now, and the paladin was actually enjoying riding out right now. And by the looks of it, so was Dew.

"You need to be careful with what you say, lad." Saladin nodded.

"Yes sir."

"And what will you do if one of your students get stuck down in the swamp?" The professor asked.

"I'll save him or her with the help of a rescue equipment and if that's out of the question then I will do it manually."

"Show me how you will manually do that." Saladin commanded.

"There is no one stuck down there sir." Nex said in a matter of factly tone.

"Well now there is." With a snap of fingers, the Headmaster was gone, vanished in thin air and so was his dragon.

"Huh?" The paladin was baffled, not really knowing what to do.

"HELP! Please help!" Something told Nex to follow the high female voice that had all of a sudden manifested somewhere down. Shifting his weight on the front, Nex prompted Dew to slowly go down, down towards the voice.

"Someone please!" The female voice rose an octave higher with urgency.

"Be right there, Ms." Nex's dark eyes registered a small figure, slowly drowning in the swamp, the sluggish water pulling her in. With a quick motion of his hand, the paladin pulled the girl out of the swamp before safely putting her down on the saddle. The girl looked elated, her eyes going wide as she looked at her saviour.

"Are you alright?" Nex was obliged to ask.

"You saved my life!" And with that the girl was gone. Poof. Gone as if she wasn't even there. It was an illusion, Nex realized. Somewhere deep down maybe he did know that. Sighing, the paladin pulled on the dragon's reins to lift her up in the air once again. He had lost his examiner. And he knew that it was going to take awhile to find him for a simple reason that Saladin could be anywhere right now. Literally anywhere. A few old trainees had told him how they had lost their examiner in the middle of the exam and how they had to go to some weird realm to go search for him. With a sigh, Nex hoped that maybe, just maybe, that won't be the case with him.

* * *

"Alright." Timmy grinned as Shooter finally lifted in the air, his eyes locked on the screen in front of him. "So apparently, the blasters had failed due to a turbulence and just needed a boost. The lighenening must have hit our ship during the thunderstorm maybe."

"Great, Tim." Brandon smiled at the genius.

"Ya, thought it would take awhile to fix this baby." Sky said, a wide grin spread across his face.

"Nah. Shooter's tough." The spectacled hero said, his hands tight on the controllers.

"We are still calling the ship that?" The squire asked, knowing oh so well how that annoyed Timster.

"Yes. And we will call this squad ship Shooter till the end of time." Timmy sounded irked and Brandon smiled knowing that he had succeeded in annoying his friend. "Besides, it is much better than Rosa."

Brandon's eyebrows formed an arch across his forehead. "Hey!" The hero exclaimed.

"Guys, not right now." Sky intervened.

"Rosa was a beautiful name for that beautiful ship." Sky's comment was discarded, thrown out the window as the two specialists carried on with their squabble.

"Guys!" The King of Eraklyon gave it another shot.

"No it wasn't" Timmy said. Ignored yet again, the blonde hero let it go.

"So this how it feels to be you huh, Brandon?" Sky chuckled before letting himself out to check on Riven. The ship was naturally a faster mode of transport than walking and they had almost reached the palace now. Something on the screen caught Timmy's eyes as his mouth opened wide in shock.

"What?" Brandon looked at the screen too and fair enough, his eyes widened as he felt his mouth go dry.

 _(1) I seriously don't know where they keep their weapons and this is what I think is true._

 _(2). The navy blue uniforms that the specialists were seen wearing might as well be just the fighting uniforms at Linphea College used in the training. Besides, I loved their old yellow-blue caped suits, so I am going to continue with them._

 ** _So what did you guys think? Let me know. Big shout out to everyone who reviewed my last few chapters: Hanna, Sd, adanethel, MeltingLove, Alexispeany, Deepak, Siri yeah and all the other lovely guests :) :) ...I don't know your name sadly. And everyone who favorited/followed my story, a big big thanks to you! And the others who keep reading and supporting me. I am happy to announce that I have reached 5k+ views! I am like the happiest person right now. Stay tuned! All the love! Peace out :)  
_**


	15. Chapter 15 - I will reach you someday

**Chapter 15 - I will reach you someday**

Drip. Drip. Drip. The sky above was overcast, clouded with just a tinge of sunshine over the horizons. It won't be long before the sun comes up. Slowly letting himself in the lounging room, the King of Eraklyon walked over to where Riven was. The magenta haired hero still hadn't woken up, his eyes sealed shut. Thankfully, he wasn't bleeding anymore, so there was at least some progress. Specialists, just like the fairies and the witches in the Magic Dimension, healed a tad bit faster when compared to a non magical creature since they were all exposed and immune to a lot magic. Anything and anyone that came in contact with that kind of magic had an inbuilt ability to heal at a faster pace. Sky didn't know what exactly had transpired with Riven and that worried him. A loud shout from the controller's pit snapped him back to reality. Frowning, the blue eyed specialist made his way towards it.

"What's wrong?" Sky asked as he approached Brandon and Timmy. The squire just cast him a panicked look before pointing towards his screen. The blonde specialist's eyes darted over at the screen as they widened in shock, a certain amount of panic washed over his entire being.

"What happened?" Was all that Sky managed to utter. In front of him, stood Tir Nan Og, standing tall in the middle of the rain. But the grand doors of the ancient palace were not exactly how he had last seen them. He remembered how Bloom had told him one day that the massive castle of the earth fairies was so magically potent and strong that it was nearly impossible to even cause it a tiny bit of harm with just the sheer force of magic. It would take a lot more than just a few lousy spells to even open the doors of the palace unless of course done manually, possibly how Riven got out in the first place. But now, an enormous hole can be seen, made in the doors, with scorch marks left here and there as some smoke erupted from around them. It was hard to even distinguish the grand doors from the ashes that was spewed around. The little amount of wood left near the big hinges was the only sign that the doors were even there in the first place. Clearly, someone had blasted through the doors. And unless they had some huge amount of nukes with them, they must have used some serious magic to get through.

"Sensors detect a spectacular amount of charged particles in the air." Timmy whispered. "Which means very strong dark magic was used around here." The genius landed the ship in a rush in front of the palace and no one cared how rough their landing actually was as the three specialists sprinted towards the door of their ship, stepping outside in a rush.

"Wait, what about Riven?" Brandon skidded to a sudden halt in the rain, glancing back at the ship.

"He will be fine inside. Let's go find the girls." Sky commanded. Weapons out, the heroes bolted inside the palace, expecting the worst. Little did they know that it was even worse than that.

* * *

"Huh, you are not getting any answers from us." Bloom's voice echoed through the Crown Room as she struggled to break free from the dark ropes that tied her down. "Fire ball." The keeper of the dragon flame mustered all the strength she had and a smile spread across her face as her hands were finally freed. Some of their magic did work here. It was just that it wasn't enough.

"Is that how it is going to be?" The wizard chuckled, clearly enjoying all of this. "Well would you care to take a look around, fairy?"

Bloom did as she was told. Her warm blue eyes scanned the entire room as she slowly got up from her place on the ground. Everyone, Stella, Layla, Musa, Flora, Tecna, Nabu, Helia, the Guard Fairies of the castle lay on the ground, down, limp, any sort of movement, absent. Duman had blasted the complete room with a black siesta spell, inducing everyone to lose their consciousness. Being the keeper of the Dragon Flame made Bloom powerful. Vigorous. Inviolable. Strong enough to resist the wizard even in the presence of such heavy dark energy. But clearly, her friends weren't. A small tinge of panic rose somewhere inside Bloom and Duman was quick enough to catch hold of her expression. Another chuckle was heard, resonating around the room.

"Well, you can keep fighting if you want them to die." Duman smirked, giving his broad shoulders a casual shrug, as if they were all discussing about the weather.

"Bloom, no." A feeble whisper was heard from somewhere behind. With a rather nonchalant face, the wizard snapped his fingers and Stella went back to the short siesta of hers.

"Don't!" Nebula and Morgana were tied to the thrones with black energy chains and by the looks of things, the two earth fairies had given up fighting against it. Since the I-stone had went missing, the powers of the terrestrial fairies were gradually waning, weakening them.

"What? You will listen to them?" Duman raised his eyebrows. "Pssh...they are always wrong. They thought that they could defeat us." The sorcerer let out a small laugh. "Us?" He asked, turning his gaze towards the thrones. "Seriously?" With one last laugh, Duman moved his hand and with one rapid motion, Bloom was caught in ropes all over again.

"Alright. Let's do it the hard way." Duman casually ambled towards the group of fairies on the ground. His eyes fixated on one certain fairy. "What if she temporarily loses her eyes, huh? Say for, a month? Or an year maybe?" Streching his palms out, the wizard aimed for the princess of the sun and the moon. A large rumble was heard as some green energy pushed the wizard a few steps backwards. Infuriated, the sorcerer gazed at the culprit to see Brandon and his green Broadsword gripped tightly around in his fist.

"Stay away from my girlfriend you, beast." Brandon shouted, his face dark. The look that Brandon gave him was enough to state that he meant every single word he said. If you were someone sane, you would have obliged and backed off immediately but well the wizard was anything but. Sky and Timmy had joined the squire as the three heroes walked across the room.

"Sky! Guys!" Bloom called. Slowly getting rid of the black ropes that she was caught into. "Emergence of flames!" The fairy screamed at the top of her lungs, aiming her attack spell at the wizard who tripped over, losing his footing. A triumphant smile played on Bloom's lips. Even if she couldn't transform, she still could get some access to magic. Brandon's green wave of energy from his weapon had woken everyone from their siestas and the brown eyed hero rushed to his girlfriend's side.

"Stella!" Brandon whispered urgently as Stella's honey eyes locked with his. "Are you alright?" Something had moved inside him when Duman had dared to hurt her. Something that the hero couldn't quite explain himself. All he knew was that he had this newfound urge to go kill that wizard. Just strangle him with his bare hands, make him choke in water, then cut him into a million pieces, but burning him alive first, then just feeding him to some hungry dogs. The specialists were violent, of course, but this was something else. This was the darkest the hero had thought about someone. How dare someone want to hurt his princess?

"What happened?" Stella blinked.

"You are fine, ssh." Brandon gently stroked her head, kneeling down on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Sky asked, as Bloom ran into his arms.

"Yeah."

With dazed expressions on their faces, everyone got out their trance, abandoning their places on the floor.

"What just happened?" Musa was saying, her hands in her head.

"You all are going to die, that's what happened." The wizard was up again, unaffected but enraged now. With a swift motion of his fingers everything turned hazy. A sharp ringing sound exploded inside the songstress's head, making her fall down in pain yet again.

"Aaah..." The voices around the room told Musa that she wasn't the only one suffering.

"This stone _absorbs_ magic. Thank you for making me stronger you pathetic fairy." Duman looked sharply at Bloom, who was now withering in pain on the ground. The emerald green stone, gleamed on the wizard's armour. "And fairy magic had always made me stronger anyway. With or without the stone."

"Enough with the games Morgana." Duman shifted his eyes on the two fairies chained to the thrones. "Just tell me." When neither Morgana nor Nebula made an effort to speak, the wizard let out a sigh of defeat. "We go way back, Morgana and I didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice." Duman turned his gaze on Nebula.

"Aaaaah." Nebula let out a loud scream as blinding pain washed over her.

"Alright, alright, stop hurting them." Morgana begged. The screams didn't stop.

"Where?" Duman pressed.

"Stop hurting them first."

"Where, Morgana?"

"Let. Them. Go." The past Queen of the earth fairies ordered.

"Where?" The sorcerer grinned. Two could play at this game.

"Omega Dimension. They are at Omega Dimension. Now leave them all alone."

"There. Was it that hard, love?" The wizard smirked, dropping his hands to his sides. The screams had suddenly stopped and the silence was like a symphony to Morgana's ears. Duman gazed at her for another half a second before opening his arms to his shoulder level. "Well my work here is done." And with that, Duman was gone. Morgana watched as a tunnel of darkness engulfed him before he completely disappeared. Her hands were finally free now, free of the chains and stretching them out, Morgana inspected them.

"Why did you tell him their location?" Bloom asked, when things had calmed down and everyone was breathing again. It was just a question, but to Morgana's ears, it came out more like an accusation. Everyone was heading out now, out towards the ship. After an hour worth of rest, the group had decided that it was finally their time to leave. The sun had come up now, shining bright, reigning the sky, all alone with no clouds. But Morgana had a feeling that it won't be long before it starts raining again.

"Because I didn't want him to hurt you all." Morgana simply stated. Halting at the now fixed doors, knowing that she won't be able to venture any further. The guard fairies of the castle still had some powers left, certainly enough for some meager repair work.

"Shouldn't we go stop him?" After their last encounter with the wizard, Nabu wasn't sure if they will be able to.

"No. He's too strong. We need to find the other stones and guard them." Morgana nodded. "Take care winx. All the best for your mission. Send my best regards to Ms. Faragonda. We couldn't be thankful enough." A feeble smile appeared on Morgana's lips as her eyes darted across the group of girls. "Boys, thank you. Tell Saladin that he is missed here." The old Queen of terrestrial fairies smiled at the squad of specialists.

"Wait, Saladin's been here?" Timmy was quick to ask, finding it hard to imagine that their magical Headmaster had ever been on a non magical planet at all.

"He has been to a lot of places." Morgana smiled. "Take care, Nabu. You are almost healed now."

With a smile of their own, everyone started towards the ship, towards a new journey. This is where they parted ways with Tir Nan Og for now.

"How is he?" Musa glanced over at Brandon as they continued walking towards Shooter, Stella by his side.

"Not good." Brandon warned, shaking his head, his lips pursed.

The ship was as good as new now, it's controls running as smooth as before. No wonder Timmy is a genius. The door in the first wing of the ship was wide open, welcoming them all in. The spectacled hero pressed a small button on the ceiling of the ship and about half a minute later, all the Levi bikes that the heroes had left in the forest came floating inside, taking their respective spots in the gear room.

"Automated call button." Timmy grinned. Tecna feebly smiled back and so did the others while Musa rushed towards the lounging room, towards him.

* * *

The magenta haired hero woke up to a flurry of voices around him. A part of him wanted to open his eyes and tell them all to stop wasting their energy at something as useless as chattering. But another part of him just wanted to keep his eyes shut and just...rest. For some reason, the second part was winning but the specialist didn't complain.

"Are you sure, Flora?" A voice stood out of all the others in the room and a jolt of warmth ran down his spine like a shock of electricity.

"Yes, Musa. I gave him the medicines and he will be up in an hour or less." Another voice said and Riven recognised it as Flora's.

 _Or less it is_ , the hero thought.

"And we did sprinkle that healing water on him from that wheel fountain that Nebula gave us." This was unmistakeably Brandon for sure.

"White Fountain, Brandon." Sky corrected the squire.

"Uh huh. Same thing."

"An hour?" Her voice again.

"Yeah." Someone answered.

"We should let him rest." Nabu said. A few footsteps were heard but a presence could still be felt around him. Riven wanted to open his eyes and see who it was but he couldn't.

"You coming, Musa?" Someone called. The amethyst eyed hero settled for Bloom.

"Yeah, in a minute." Her voice echoed in his ears again and the hero swore that he could listen to it for days. It was just the prettiest, most beautiful voice he had ever heard in his entire existence, hands down. One of the many many things that he loved about her.

"Alright." After some more footsteps, the room fell silent. With a small thud, Musa sat down near him on a stool.

"Hey, Riven." Musa breathed. "I know you can't hear me right now but...I am so sorry. I had no right to say that to you." Musa gently stroked his spiked magenta hair, careful not to touch the bandage that was wrapped snugly aroung his head. Her intoxicating scent filled in his senses and the hero grabbed hold of the thing, which he supposed was a blanket that covered him. It was all he could do to not just take her in his arms already. Musa continued stroking his hair, completely oblivious.

"I was so scared for you. I...am sorry." The fairy's voice broke.

"You shouldn't have just left like that, Riven. It's dangerous, we could have lost you." Riven's eyes were still closed while Musa carried on with her guard down. " _I_ could have lost you."

"I have missed you so much." Her hand was still in his hair. "So much. I used to go crazy. Couldn't sleep at nights. Couldn't wake up in the mornings."A small tear trickled down her cheek and she didn't wipe it away.

"Letting you go was the worst thing I ever did." Her voice came hitched and all the hero wanted to do was just comfort her. He felt the same. He did. But he couldn't move, petrified, paralyzed where he lay.

"I am so glad you are back." Her hand had dropped down to his cheek now, stroking it calmly.

 _I am too_ , the specialist's voice echoed inside his brain. If only he could wake up now. With a small kiss on his cheek and one on his forehead, the fairy slowly got up, walking towards the controller's room.

'Wait', Riven wanted to say as he heard her softly close the door behind her.

"Hey." Tecna greeted her as she took a seat beside her. "We will reach there in two hours. Jared will be there, he texted me, since your phone's out."

"Okay." Musa gave her a small smile. Everyone was in the controlling chamber right now so it was just the two of them.

"Jared will be there." Musa repeated. For many reasons, Musa wasn't thrilled for Riven to meet Jared. She just wasn't.

* * *

 _ **That was it for today. How was it? Let me know. All the love. Peace out!  
**_


	16. Chapter 16 - Masked Day

**Chapter 16 - Masked Day** **  
**

Drip. Drip. Drip. There had been a sudden increment in the rain and Dew was definitely not happy. Eyeing the tunnel of light in front of her, the animal gave the paladin a look that clearly stated that she wasn't too pleased with going inside it. Nex, standing beside her, gently stroked her head.

"What's wrong girl?"

"Hrmm..." A loud rumble was heard from somewhere behind her giant neck.

"This is it, Dew. This must be it." Nex urged her, a faint smile playing on his lips. After hours of searching the Black Mud Swamp, the paladin had fianlly found a hologram levitating above a bush, which he knew must be the clue that Saladin had mentioned to him the other day on training and how he would have to keep searching for his examiner with the help of the clue. This was for his own good, apparently. Well Saladin had said so atleast.

"Hhurr..." Another grunt escaped the dragon's mouth as the animal slowly struggled to back away from the portal that Nex had just created with his gadget. She was scared but she couldn't be blamed. What was beyond the vortex was something to actaully be afraid of.

 _In a world where the sun shone shone bright, meet me where ALL the dragons fight_ , the clue had stated and Nex was quiet sure where this place was. Pyros (1). The echanted island of the dragons.

"Come on, Dew." The blue haired paladin said, pulling himself up on the saddle. Settling down, Nex slowly prompted the dragon to enter the portal. Reluctantly, the red skinned dragon finally obliged before stepping inside the vortex.

"Good girl." Nex smiled.

 _Let's get this over with._

Nex had the stamina of an athlete that he was, but all this saving people, answering questions, finding clues, clearing paths, talking to some magical tree and what not that Saladin had made him do in this examination was horribly tiring. Even if the paladin was too proud to admit it, he knew that he was exhausted. He would be fast asleep the moment his body crashed on his bed. Just like horse riding, dragon riding requires certain kinds of postures and it is a great exercise if done for an hour or two. But riding a dragon for a whole day is a completly different story. Dew was tired too, Nex could sense it. Poor creature. Pyros, as Nex had read somewhere, was rich in Flora and fauna. Mainly fauna. The dragon island was a place swarming with dragons. You won't be able to venture a few meters on the island without running into one of those creatures. Most of the dragons are tamable and can be handled with ease but there were a few breeds that Nex wished he didn't run into. With her wings outstretched, Dew continued maneuvering between a few harmless dragons as she cruised around in the sky. Even if it wasn't exactly a picnic spot, Nex had to admit that the place was beautiful. He had never been here before. The paladin did catch a few glimpses of the place in his stimulation exams at his school but that was it. The place was still a mystery to him.

"Professor Saladin?" Nex shouted. No response.

"Sir?"

"Hello?"

A little further away, one dragon caught the paladin's eye. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary except that there was a rider on its back. A wide grin spread across his face as he made his way towards it.

"Sir?"

"Well done." The old man said, not bothering to turn around. "Now, let's enter the final stage of this test, shall we?"

* * *

An eeriely dark glow enamated from the ice around him as he trudged forward, already feeling the close proximity of his brothers. Just a few turns here and there and the wizard will be there in no time. The frozen world or infamously known as the Omega Dimension was one of the most dreaded places anyone could have ever wished to be in. But the wizard had a radically different opinion on that matter. Duman somehow found the coldness of the place...soothing. Calming. Inducing him to feel a tad bit at peace for some time now. The wizard continued walking as their energy got even stronger. Morgana had, after a lot of persuasion on his part, finally disclosed where exactly his brothers were. Even if Duman was too busy threatening people, or in his own words, gently persuading someone, he had noticed the missing crown on Morgana's head that had always sat perfectly on her temples. The wizard couldn't help but wonder what had happened. Nebula was wearing it now. Did she overthrew Morgana? The sorcerer knew that Morgana was too strong for that. Maybe she had forfeited the throne. Who knows? It bothered Duman that he still cared enough to waste his precious energy on thoughts as useless as those. Who cares what Morgana was doing right?

 _Right_ , the wizard thought sarcastically as he slowly dug his fingers in his pink Mohawk. Cursing under his breath, he realized that he still cared enough not to hurt her. The past was in the past but Duman couldn't just let go. And since he had no say in it whatsoever made the wizard rather furious with himself. Sighing, the sorcerer continued walking. Even when they had trapped all the fairies on the planet, he had made sure that she wasn't physically hurt in anyway. That was all he could do. After all that they had been through, he knew too well that he will never in a million years convince himself to anguish her in anyway. His brothers didn't know and it wasn't like they would understand anyway. Giving his head a slight shake, the wizard tried to think about anything but her. She always made him weak this way. And Duman loathed anyone or anything that weakened him but he just couldn't get himself to hate her. He just couldn't.

"Stop it!" Duman said while the dark force of his brothers had intensified to the point that it satuarted the air around him.

"Stop it!" The sorcerer repeated. This was a side of him that he never exposed to anyone. _Anyone_. Not even to his brothers. He didn't want anyone to know that this side of him existed in the first place. He liked it better when he was a demon in everyone's eyes. It was way easier this way when there was no need to explain things to anyone. When everyone thinks that he was just a sick monster that had no conscience. Hopefully, that is how she viewed him too. Of course that _is_ how she viewed him. Even though they had been through a lot of stuff together, she was supposed to see him that way. He had imprisoned her whole kingdom for crying out loud. There was a reason why he did what he did. Everyone has their own reasons. So did he and maybe so did his brothers. A smirk spread across the sorcerer's face as he finally saw them. Stretching his palms out, all the while trying to clear his head, he watched as the ice that had surrounded them slowly began to fade.

"Welcome back, brothers." Duman grinned.

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity of struggle, the violet eyed hero had finally managed to get out of the armchair. His hand flew to his head and the hero cursed under his breath when it made contact with his forehead. It was as if someone had decided to just hammer nails in the specialist's skull for no reason at all. The hero feared that this will be a very long headache. A very very long one. Untangling himself from the blanket that covered him, Riven got down on his feet. His head was still reeling from his last encounter with Musa and this wretched headache was just a cherry on the top.

 _ **I am so glad you are back**_ , her voice rang in his ears and a small smile tugged at his lips but his face was marred yet again as another pang of pain came crashing around inside his head. Flinching, the hero came to sudden halt, grabbing hold of his head with both his hands. Digging his fingers deeper in his scalp, the magenta haired hero struggled to hold his ground. This wasn't like anything he had ever experienced before. This pain was blinding.

"Damn it." Riven snarled, taking another step towards the door. For some inexpliacble reason, the door to the controller's room just seemed getting further and further away from the hero.

"Come on." The hero pressed his forehead with one of his hands. The bandage that was tied around his head, if anything, was making him even more uncomfortable.

His lips pursed, the specialist rushed towards the door. With one hard push, the hero was out in the controller's room. Planning to head straight towards the controller's pit with his hands ensnaring his head, Riven was caught quiet off guard when someone called his name.

"Riven, you are awake." Two fairies walked towards him. One of them looked really happy to see him and underneath all the pain, Riven wondered what had come over her since she was never this happy even when her boyfriend was around. He was no Sky after all.

"Hey Flora" Riven was compelled to unsheild his head. "Do you think you can give me something for my headache?"

The two fairies looked utterly baffled at his choice of words, staring at him with confused eyes as if had grown another head or something.

"What?" A tinge of annoyance was heard in his voice.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" Bloom asked him, frowning.

"Listen." The hero gritted his teeth. "My head will explode any minute now. So stop talking in riddles."

The two girls still did not know what to say.

"I am Tecna." Flora whispered, looking at Riven closely. "And that's Musa." She said, pointing at Bloom. Women never made sense to Riven but these two here were trying too hard to be difficult right now.

"What?" The specialist narrowed his eyes at Bloom, who just looked over at him.

"Are you okay?" Bloom asked him with genuine worry clouding her eyes.

"Are _you_ okay?" The hero snapped back, his eyes narrowed to slits. Why did they always want to get on his nerves at the worst time possible?

"Maybe you should go lie down again." Flora suggested calmly before Bloom could have reacted.

"I don't think so."

"Well I do."

"I don't." Riven retorted, a bit calm now.

"That will help ease the pain. You go lie down and I'll get you some medicines alright?" Flora gave him a feeble smile.

"Just give me the medicines." Riven whispered before the weight on his shoulders became too much to bear and everything faded to darkness.

* * *

"Why did you do that?" Musa sounded annoyed. Riven's limp body was now sprawled on the floor of the ship.

"Didn't you see it in his eyes?" Tecna answered her question with one of her own.

"See what?"

"He was spelled." The fairy of technology muttered. "He thought I was Flora and that you were Bloom." Kneeling down, she slowly inspected the specialist's face for any giveaway. "And if I am not wrong then..." Hiding under his bandage was a small mark and Tecna's eyes instantly widened.

"What?" The songstress squinted.

"The mark of forgetfulness." Tecna gasped.

"That can't be." Musa uttered urgently, inspecting his forehead herself.

"How is that even possible? This requires casting the Masked Day spell . And that spell is so ancient that no one knows it anymore." The fairy of technology said. Musa was still busy gawking at the mark to pay Tecna her complete attention. "And it requires a tremendous amount of energy. Do you think Duman...?"

"But no one knows that spell anymore." Gently, Musa reached over to touch the mark, desperate to rub it off. In the olden days, people with magnificent amount of accumulated magic used to cast Masked Day Spell, where the victim used to lose his or her senses for an unfathomable time frame. Their senses just used to go haywire and since these spells were so random that you could never know what effect it had, it used to take up a lot of your energy. It was no job for a novice and only someone _really_ powerful could pull that off. The victims usually used to get muddled up, switching one person for another, not really knowing what was happening, masking their sense of judgement, hence the name of the spell. In all realms, this spell was now banned, since it biologically altered your brain and your body somehow. One of the main reasons why people slowly let it become ancient. The musical fairy had read about it in sophomore year when they had a whole unit on ancient and forgotten magic. Not much was known about this spell and this frightened Musa.

"The mark needs to be removed before the effect turns permanent." Tecna could feel the ship descending down now. Alfea could be seen outside from the windows.

"Landing in progression." Timmy's voice announced from somewhere in the controller's pit. They were back but sadly, so were their problems.

"How...?" Musa's question was left hanging in the air as Tecna herself did not know an answer to that. Outside, a certain someone continued waiting for the guardian of music as the ship landed.

* * *

(1) Pyros is the island where Bloom gained her enchantix powers. The island of dragons.

 _ **I wrote this one in a hurry and it's not that good or polished and I apologize. The next one, I promise would be worth your time. Please stay tuned!. All the love. Peace out!**_


	17. Chapter 17 - Still in the dark

** Chapter 17 - Still in the dark  
**

Drip. Drip. Drip. It was night now at Alfea. There was about a twenty one hour gap between Earth and Magix. The sun must be shining bright over there right now. The sky above here was almost clear of clouds tonight as the moon took over it, glowing in its full glory. By the looks of things, it won't be raining for much longer. His dark navy blue hair was sleeked back as he waited by his Levi bike for the ship to finally open it's grand doors. The tiny rain drops had become really light now and the specialist pretended that the water did not bother him. His amber eyes were transfixed at the ship as he desperately longed for her to come out already. Ms. Faragonda was standing by his side, waiting for them herself.

"They are finally here." The headmistress of the school of fairies sounded relieved.

"Yes." A smile spread across Jared's face. The specialist and the fairy of music had been dating for just about a month now and the hero had to admit that even a day or two apart from her made him miss her like hell. He was itching to finally meet her once again. The doors were finally opened and Brandon and Helia were the first to walk out of the ship. The hero's brows flew up in confusion as he watched them slowly walk towards them. It wasn't the two boys that baffled him, it was the limp body of a certain magenta haired hero that they carried that did. Frowning, Jared wondered what must have transpired with Riven.

"Go, take him to the infirmary." Ms. Faragonda commanded and the heroes did not wait another second as they walked away towards the school building. Tecna had cast a sleeping spell on Riven to see if he can be healed with the help of Ms. Faragonda and now, the violet eyed hero looked like a trainwreck. Sky, Timmy, Nabu and Layla came out next. And somewhere behind them was the winx club and a tingly feeling of warmth shot down Jared's spine as his amber eyes locked with her azure ones.

"Nabu..." Ms. Faragonda said, a small smile plastered on her face. "It's good to see that you are back, young man."

"It's good to be back, Ms. Faragonda." The wizard smiled back.

"We have to talk to you, Ms. F." Bloom was quick to say.

"I know." The headmistress nodded. Ms. Faragonda always had a tendency to know things before hand. One way or another, she always knew what was going on. "I talked to Morgana via a telepathic connection, although she couldn't talk much."

The earth fairies are weakened because..." The fairy of nature trailed off.

"I know Flora. I do. We will talk about this tommorow morning in my office. You girls have been through so much and I want you to go rest for awhile." Ms. Faragonda glanced over at the specialists. "Boys, you should go rest too. I have sent a message to Saladin. We need all the help we can get right now. The wizards would be free very soon I fear and we need to be prepared. "

"Okay." Everyone sighed in unison, too exhausted to speak anymore.

"Very well. Now let me go check on your friend." Ms. Faragonda gave one final nod before she made a beeline towards the school infirmary and after casting a few looks to each other, everyone followed her. But a few lingered.

"Musa." A small laugh escaped the hero's lips as he opened his arms wide for a hug.

"Hey Jared." The fairy of music smiled before giving him a brief hug.

"How are you?"

"I am..." Musa gave it a thought. "Fine I guess."

"Why the pause?" Jared frowned, already assuming what the answer would be.

"It's...nothing." The guardian of music gave her shoulders a quick raise while they started ambling towards the school building.

"You are really not good with lies, Musa." The hero noted, giving her a sideways glance. Musa just smiled at that. The fairy, even if she won't admit it, was terrified to talk about all of this right now. First, they find out that Duman is alive, then her father and now...him. Riven. There was a whirlwind of emotions that were lashing around inside Musa right now. And she was pretty positive that she didn't want anyone to get caught amidst that disaster.

"I..." She struggled for words. Letting the fleeting silence that engulfed them do the talking.

"You can trust me." Jared promised. One look in his eyes was all she needed to know that she could.

"My...dad...he is not doing well. He just..." Musa said. "He's sick."

A concerned look registered his features as they continued walking.

"I am sorry."

"Yeah and we just got to know that Duman is alive."

"One of those wizards?" The specialist frowned.

"Ya. And maybe...so are his brothers. And they are stronger than ever."

"But not stronger than you. You guys have defeated them once already."

A bright smile flashed across Musa's face. But it did not take long for it turn into a scowl.

"No. You don't understand... He is stronger than ever. He is the one responsible for what happened to Riven." The fairy of music said in a rather heated voice.

 _Or maybe I am_ , a feeling of guilt washed over her entire being at the thought of that.

"What exactly happened to him?"

"He's spelled. And it needs to broken before it's too late."

"I see." Jared fumbled, not being too comfortable with talking to his girlfriend about her ex.

"It's just..." Musa's hands hugged her torso instinctively as a shiver ran down her spine. "So many things have happened all of a sudden. This and that. And all I wanted was to..." She looked at him.

"Hmm?" Jared promoted her to speak.

"To scream. You know."

Jared had removed his black leather jacket and was now gently placing it on Musa's shoulders. The cold must be bothering her.

"Then do that." The hero gave her a small smile.

"What?" Musa let out a laugh, the sound like a wind chime to his ears.

"Scream." Jared encouraged her, beaming at her.

"No...it's almost midnight and I don't want be killed by a mob of angry sleepy teenagers at Alfea." The fairy laughed once again.

"I'll join you if you want."

"No, it's alright."

But hero wasn't letting it go so easy. In anticipation, he took a deep breath and looked at her probingly.

"Jared don't." Musa warned.

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh..."

"Jared!" A few lights were instantly switched on around them.

"Come on." Jared smiled. Shrugging, the fairy inhaled.

"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhaa..." Even a few more dorm lights could been seen now. But suddenly, her shoulders felt at ease. It felt so good and Musa couldn't help but not care.

* * *

The rain had stopped now, to which Jared was really thankful of. Driving a Levi bike while getting entirely drenched in the rain wasn't exactly his idea of fun.

"We will see you tommorow then." Helia said, giving Flora one last kiss on her forehead.

"Bye." The fairy of nature beamed.

Riven still hadn't woken up. Thanks to Tecna's sleeping spell, he might be out for some time now. But that was in the hero's best intrest anyway, who knew what kind of an adverse effect that spell might have on him. He was still in the infirmary of the school and Ms. Faragonda said that it would be better if he was left here for some time to help remove the mark from him. Apparently, the Masked Day spell was something that even the headmistress of Alfea didn't know how to break. Maybe Saladin could help tommorow.

"Goodnight." Stella whispered groggily and Brandon let out a small chuckle. She looked so adorable when she was sleepy.

"Take care babe." The squire smiled.

"Nigh, Jared." Musa said. Sky, Timmy and the other heores were done with their goodbyes and were heading straight towards the ship now.

"Bye Musa." Jared whispered, activating his Levi bike and his automated helmet. But at a second thought, he removed his helmet. "Hey Layla. Sorry Nex couldn't be here. He was so tired from his Course-E exam."

That was a harmless comment on Jared's part since he didn't know all the history between Nabu and Layla but it was harmful enough to cause the princess of Andros to panic. Nabu's hand tightened around hers and confusion marred his perfect face.

"Who's Nex?" Nabu strived to sound as nonchalant as possible.

"Huh...?"

Jared had sped off into the rain now and Layla could see Musa retreating towards Alfea.

"Nex?"

"Oh...Nex?" The aquatic fairy searched for something to say. Anything. "He...he's Jared's cousin." It felt like something was pushing her down all of a sudden. Guilt, the princess realized. She did not even know why she lied to him in the first place. The truth would have been a much much better option.

"But why would Jared's cousin want to - " Whatever Nabu wanted to say was cut off.

"You coming Nabu?" Sky called from near the ship's doors.

"Yeah." Nabu called back. "Alright, I will see you later Layla." One soft kiss on her forehead and he was gone, walking away towards the ship that awaited him. Leaving behind a guilt striken Layla.

* * *

"You are awake?" Musa asked when she walked in on a very much awake Riven. She had just walked in the medical room to check on the magenta haired specialist and had found him sitting on the bed.

"I guess." The hero muttered in a hushed voice, getting off the small bed.

"How are you feeling?"

"Well, my head is about to explode any minute now so...ya." Shoving his hands in his pockets, the specialist walked towards the fairy.

"Where are the others?" Riven asked, walking past the fairy to a metalled table near the corner of the room. Picking up a glass full of water off the table, the hero lifted it to his lips, gulping it all down in a single breath, ignoring the burning sensation the transition caused in his throat when he did come to realize that the glass was in fact filled with hot water instead."Huh..." With a grunt, the hero put the glass back down.

"Well everyone is back in their rooms."

"And what about Sky and the specialists?" Of course he would ask her about Sky. She was Bloom for him after all.

"Red Fountain. You should lie down again." Musa suggested.

"You know, Bloom, I am sick of people telling me that." Riven's voice was tinged with annoyance.

"Well, you need rest."

"Hey, um...did Musa go to Melody yet?" The specialist purposefully averted his gaze from hers.

"No. It got too late. She will be going tommorow I guess. Why?" The fairy of music couldn't hide her smile.

"No apparent reason." The violet eyed hero replied bluntly. "When did we reach here anyway?"

"About an hour ago."

"Uh ha. Is she okay?" Riven's eyes were getting groggy again. A kind of a mist clouding his vision. Tecna's spell stil hadn't wore off.

"Ya she is." Musa gave him a feeble smile watching him drift back to sleep.

* * *

"Today must be the longest day in the history of all time." Brandon groaned, meandering through the endless corridors of the school of heroics and bravery.

"Tell me about it." Timmy agreed.

"Something tells me that tommorow will be even more longer. That Lake of Wisdom doesn't sound like something that would be easy to find." Sky muttered, inducing the squire to curse under his breath.

"I won't be waking up tommorow." Brandon announced as he took a left. The teachers quarters were just up ahead, a little further away from the students dorms. Since the trainee teacher programme, the squad was alotted new teacher quarters. And these beautiful quarters had made Brandon realize that they had been living in a shoe box when they were students at Red Fountain. Seriously. If the student dorms of the almighty Red Fountain were comfortable and cozy, then the rooms for teachers were absolutely divine and nothing else.

"So long." Helia nodded at the group, halting in front of his room.

"Night." Everyone said in unison.

With one last exchange of a wordless look, the raven haired hero let himself inside his room.

Saladin had been pleasantly surprised and beyond happy to see that Nabu was finally back. Nabu's father and the Headmaster of Red Fountain were old friends and Saladin had known the young wizard for quiet some time now. Nabu loved volunteering at Red Fountain, teaching the students a few harmless spells and tricks that were more than helpful in battles. (1) Saladin had therefore, given Nabu a full time access to the accommodation and hospitality of the school and he was more than happy to give him one of the spare rooms in the teachers quarters.

"Hey guys?" Nabu asked to no one particular. "Whose Nex? Apparently he's some cousin of Jared." The wizard was never the kind to get jealous or pry. But the way Layla had reacted at his name had genuinely made him curious.

"What? No. He's from Linphea College and he's been doing a trainee teacher course here at Red Fountain." Sky whispered.

"Oh..." So she _had_ lied to him. "Okay."

* * *

 _(1) Nabu was always seen with the specialists in the show even when he did not attend Red Fountain. There must be some explanation why he was so closely associated with the school and the heroes. This was what I could come up with._

 ** _My story has reached 100 reviews! Wow! Honestly I never thought that my story will ever get that much attention. Thank you all soo much...for reading/favoriting/following and reviewing...means alot! Stay tuned! All the love. Peace out :)_**


	18. Chapter 18 - Perfect

**Chapter 18 - Perfect**

 _Drip. Drip. Drip. A shiver ran down his spine and the rain did not cease. Relentless and persistent, the raindrops seeped into his hair. The hero was lost. Lost in the depths of the forest. All the trees around him were eerily dry and barren. The place was just motionless. Devoid of any life. With his hands in his pockets, the specialist continued trudging on. He had never been here but for some inexplicable reason, it felt like he had. His violet eyes inspected the landscape around him as he searched for something. Anything. But all that his eyes could register were an endless array of dead trees. Trees. Trees. And trees. It wasn't too bright but it wasn't pitch black either and his eyes had adjusted to his dim surroundings by now. Walking forward, the hero caught himself wondering why he was here in the first place. It must have been twilight by now and a cold breeze whooshed past him, inducing him to shut his eyes reflexively. A low sound of a water fall can be heard somewhere near by and the hero was relieved to finally hear something other than the pitter patter of the rain. Making a beeline towards the direction of the sound, the specialist was surprised to see such a beautiful water fall in the middle of nowhere. The water fall, to simply put it, was just breathtaking and the luscious flora that surrounded it was definitely a plus point._

 _"Woah..." The specialist let out a small gasp of surprise._

 _"Riven." A hushed voice rang in his ears and Riven swiveled around to see a stark silhouette somewhere near the pile of rocks just behind him._

 _"Riven." The voice repeated and the hero deliberated for a second. "Come here." The voice was saying and the hero was compelled to follow it, his legs suddenly having a mind of their own. From this distance, Riven could tell that it was woman, seated somewhere near the rocks. With a few easy strides, the specialist squinted to take a better look at the woman, her back curtained by her ebony black hair, flowing down in waves of raven silk with a few streaks of gold in between. He still couldn't tell who she was as her back was facing him but Riven had a sickening feeling deep inside that he somehow knew this woman._

 _"Riven." She finally turned around and Riven was instantaneously awe-struck. Her face was a sculptors dream, with high cheekbones and her head was decorated by some kind of jewellery. She was donning a soft cream white gown and her skin was blemish less. If anything, the woman standing in front of the hero was...perfect. But her most striking feature was her eyes. Those hauntingly beautiful violet eyes. So similar to his own that it was like looking in a mirror._

 _"I know you." The specialist stated, his eyes never leaving hers. "Don't I?"_

 _"Yes you do." She whispered._

 _"Who..." Riven frowned. "...are you?"_

 _"You look so handsome." The lady gushed, ignoring his question. "You have grown into a fine young man." She smiled._

 _"Who are you?" The magenta haired specialist continued frowning and the woman just stared at him. Silence blasted from all the four directions, engulfing them as no one spoke a single word. Riven held her gaze, not wanting to be the one to squirm and cave. After awhile, the lady looked away, averting her eyes from him, giving Riven some kind of a strange satisfaction. This wasn't the first time that Riven had seen this woman, and by the looks of things, it won't be the last._

 _"Who are you?" Riven spat, his tone abruptly taking a harsh turn. "Why don't you just answer me?"_

 _The woman stared at him with disbelief, not daring to utter anything._

 _"Huh?" The hero's brows flew up as impatience took over his entire being. He couldn't play whatever sick game this lady was playing anymore. He wanted answers and he wanted them now._

 _The lady's face had suddenly darkened, her eyes blazing._

 _"You were never good enough anyway." She smirked, shaking her head. "I regret nothing." The woman gave her shoulders a quick raise. Something moved inside Riven and it did not take long for his impatience to convert into anger. Deep down he knew that her words had broken his walls, wrecking them._

 _"Burn in hell." The hero gritted his teeth, veering towards the water fall._

 _"You will never be good enough for anyone." The lady continued, making Riven to stop dead in his tracks. He could take a million stabs with knives, he could get sliced open by a sword, he could take a billion bullets. He could take it all without a single tear. Wounds healed after all. But these words, these exact words were enough to scar the hero. He had always dreaded these words. Always. "You will never be good enough for your friends, for your school, for Saladin and of course for her...Musa." Riven could feel his eyes going wide as something broke inside him. Something that was broken already to start with. Clenching his hands into fists, the hero turned around. But his eyes went even wider to see that it wasn't the violet eyed woman standing in front of him now. Her azure eyes met his._

 _"Musa?"_

 _"Go away, Riven. You are not good enough."_

 _"Huh?"_

 _"Not good enough. Not good enough. Not good enough. Not good enough." Musa's usually sing song voice had become frighteningly high-pitched and Riven swore that somewhere in between, he could unmistakably hear the voice of that woman mixed with her's. "Not good enough. Not good enough. Not good enough."_

"Aah..." The hero woke up with sweat beads covering his entire forehead. And as usual, a very bad headache. "Damn." Riven cursed under his breath before entangling his fingers in his hair. His eyes looked around to see that he was still in the small yet cozy infirmary of Alfea. It wasn't raining outside right now and the sun shone bright, enrichening the room with some sunshine and the specialist groaned inwardly. The bandage that was snug around his temples was worsening the ache. To his surprise, the medical room was empty, with no one in sight. This wasn't his first bad dream in awhile. And the hero was sick of all this. Riven decided on just concentrating on the problem at hand and pushing this dream somewhere deep inside his head, the specialist abandoned his place on the bed and started towards the medicine cabinet, hoping to find something to ease his wretched headache.

* * *

After a hearty breakfast and a peaceful ride to Alfea, Brandon swore that nothing could go wrong now. Alfea, as always had its gates wide open, welcoming them all in. Parking their Levi bikes in the Alfea quad, the heroes started towards the school building. Nabu had taken Riven's bike, since the boys weren't exactly in the mood to drive their squad ship. They were given clear orders to go straight to Alfea after breakfast as Ms. Faragonda had some news to share. The sky above was clear with no clouds in sight for a change and Timmy was genuinely enjoying the weather today, not being a huge fan of the rain in the first place.

"What do you think the news is?" Sky asked to no one in particular as the blonde specilaist meandered through the corridors of Alfea.

"Something about the Lake, perhaps." Helia replied.

Nabu was still worn out from yesterday and sleep had suddenly taken a hating in the wizard since it had decided not to show up the last night at all.

"Riven must be okay by now, right?" The wizard mumbled.

"Maybe." Brandon gave his shoulders a quick shrug.

Ms. Faragonda's office was just in the wake of the potion lab, a little to the left. The light pink walls of the school looked much better in daylight, much warmer and as the specialists walked on, Brandon's eyes darted towards the small school infirmary that they were passing right now. It's open door gave away that it was empty, except for the furniture and the medicines of course.

"Huh...he's not in there." Timmy frowned.

"Maybe he's in the office already." The King of Eraklyon suggested, walking on. They had almost reached the headmistress's office by now. A familiar figure was stumbling near it and it did not take even a second for them to realize who it was.

"Riven!" Nabu called and the magenta haired hero turned around at his name.

"Talk of the devil." The squire grinned, making a beeline towards him.

Riven's violet eyes widened for a second, taking all of them in before they dangerously narrowed at Nabu.

"How are you?" Nabu tried ignoring his friends coldness as he approached the magenta haired hero.

"You..." Riven continued glaring daggers at Nabu, his eyes blazing. It all happened in the span of a few seconds. Riven lunged at Nabu, his hand going for the wizard's throat and in a quick motion, Nabu was now shoved against the wall, Riven's hand tight around his neck.

"What do you think you are doing with Musa, _Jared_?" Riven spat the words like venom.

"Wha - " The wizard struggled to break free.

"Huh?" The magenta haired hero pushed Nabu in the wall once again.

"Let him go, Riven." Helia was the first to reconcile. Everyone else was too taken aback to act.

"You better stay away from her." Riven took no notice of the pacifist's words whatsoever. Nabu was still struggling under the violet eyed specialist's grip. So all those crazy stories about Riven at Red Fountain must be true. The wizard had always thought that some of them were just too far fetched but who knows. And not to mention, Riven really _was_ freakishly strong.

"It's the spell." Realization finally hit Sky. Brandon was now yanking at Riven's shoulders and Helia had him entangled with his laser strings.

"We get it. You are not a morning person, now let go." Brandon commanded, irked.

"Iced numbness." Nabu whispered and Riven loosened his grasp around his neck instantaneously before completely letting him go. The wizard was now inspecting his neck, bending it front and back.

"Are you alright?" The spectacled hero was quick to ask, rushing by his side.

"I am scared for the real Jared. I really am." Nabu shook his head, a small smile spread across his face.

"What did you do to him?" Sky asked, eyeing Riven, who looked like someone had just hit him with a baseball bat over the head, dazed and perplexed.

"It's a harmless spell. It just freezes your adversary." Seeing the looks on everyone's faces, Nabu felt the need to continue. "Not literally. They just can't do anything for sometime. Excpet breath and walk. That kind of stuff."

"Yo Riven?" Brandon waved his hand in front of Riven's face, a tad bit amused. The magenta haired hero just continued staring blankly at the squire's hand, doing nothing. "Cool. You know man, your hair's stupid." No reaction. "Cool..." The brown eyed hero grinned.

"Woah...when will the spell wear off?" The King of Eraklyon asked.

"In about an hour." Nabu shrugged. "What will he do when he actually meets Jared?" The wizard was genuinely curious.

"Well, only time will tell." Brandon said. The heroes started walking towards Ms. F's chamber. "And I wanna be there when that happens." Riven was right behind them all, staggering and stumbling, consumed in a daze of his own.

* * *

"The Golden Gates?" Sky was baffled.

"Yes." Bloom nodded, a few wild strands of her fiery red hair clouding her vision. The specialist gently pushed her bangs behind her ear. To his surprise, the headmistress's office was empty with no one in sight. So the boys had decided to look for their girls in their rooms and Sky now sat on Bloom's bed. Apparently, Saladin and Ms. Faragonda had some emergency to attend to and hence she had left before she could meet the specialists. Tecna and Timmy could be seen in another corner of the room, tinkering with some equipment that could help locate the map to the Lake of Wisdom and the rest were just lounging around in the room, seated in half a circle around the bed. Riven, still under Nabu's spell had taken a liking in the corner couch of the room and had decided to just stay there for sometime.

"But the Golden Gates are in Eraklyon. If the Lake of Wisdom is somewhere near them, why haven't I heard of it?" Brandon quirked his eyebrows. "My dad was the head of security for those gates. I literally spent half of my childhood over there." The squire was deep in thought, fidgeting around his head to remember at least something about the lake.

"Well that's maybe because you never _needed_ the lake." Musa nodded in a way that suggested that she made total sense. To herself atleast.

"What?" Brandon frowned.

"Ms. Faragonda says that the lake helps those in need." Flora said.

"Aah." The squire nodded. "That clears it all up." Brandon's voice was tainted with sarcasm and no one was amused.

"Saladin couldn't find a cure to the Masked Day spell himself. All we know about it is that it can drastically turn permanent if not removed. Ms. Faragonda says that hopefully we will find a cure for it at the lake." Bloom's eyes darted from face to face. "So now we have two purposes to go to Eraklyon and find the lake." Bloom announced.

"When do we leave?" Helia asked.

"As soon as possible." The princess of Andros replied.

"Now that's convenient. We are going to Eraklyon at the time of the Knightley Games." Sky gazed at Bloom, a small smile playing on his lips.

"It really is conenient. Since you guys can't accompany us to the Lake of Wisdom, you boys might as well attend that event." Musa said.

"What?" The specialists asked in unison.

"Yeah the lake doesn't allow non magical creatures to enter." Bloom purposefully averted her gaze from Sky.

"What? We are not non magical! Our mothers are fairies for crying out loud." Brandon protested.

"Let me rephrase. You need to _practice_ magic." Bloom said.

"That's bullshit." The squire scoffed.

"So I can still come?" Nabu smiled at Layla and she beamingly returned it.

"But what if it's dangerous?" Brandon's brown eyes landed on her honey golden ones. She hadn't uttered a single word this whole conversation.

"We will handle ourselves." Stella assured him. "Ugh...now I would have to pack again for Eraklyon." The fairy of the sun and the moon let out a loud groan, inducing Brandon to grin from ear to ear.

"But I don't get it. Why would Duman use such an ancient and powerful spell on Riven?" Bloom mused. Silence fell between the group. No one had given a thought to that.

"Maybe it's a threat?" Flora offered. "Or a warning."

"He clearly wants us to back off." Layla agreed.

Tecna's voice was clearly heard from across the room. "Kiko, stop it you are distracting me." The fairy of technology rebuked Bloom's pet rabbit, who was tugging at Tecna's jeans right now. A faint laugh was heard as Timmy finally lifted the poor bunny in his hands to pet him.

"Or maybe..." Bloom said urgently. "It's a distraction."

"A distraction from what?" Sky frowned.

"From the stones."

* * *

"Yeah, I really need to see them." Nabu looked over at Layla as they continued walking towards the benches Alfea had on offer in the school quad. "I can't wait to meet my parents."

"They will be over the moon. Trust me." Layla gave him a feeble smile. It was decided that the group will be leaving for Eraklyon in about two hours and Nabu and Layla would be going to Andros to meet his family. Musa wanted to visit her dad in Melody. And depite all the offers, the musical fairy wanted go all alone. So the plan was that the three of them will be joining the gang in Eraklyon later this day. Nabu still hadn't told the guradian of music about his encounter with Riven this morning and maybe she didn't need to know. She had enough on her plate already. Since teleportation demanded a plethora of magic, the group was taking the squad ship to Eraklyon. Magix wasn't to far away from Sky's and Brandon's home planet and it just a six hour journey, tops. Musa, Nabu and Layla however were going to use vortex teleportation, since truth to be spoken, it really was the easiest way to travel across the universe and between different realms.

"So, how do you know Nex?" It had been bothering the wizard since a long time now and he just wanted to get it out of his system. Something indecipherable flickered across her features and Nabu couldn't read it.

"Um...he's Musa's cousin. She tried setting me up with him but it didn't work out." Layla blurted it out with the speed out lightening. All of this sounding bogus to her own ears.

Nabu just frowned at that. "But I thought you said he was Jared's cousin?"

"Did I say Musa?" The aquatic fairy shook her head. "I meant Jared. Silly me." She smiled bashfully.

"I know when you lie, Layla."

"Can you just give me some time?" The princess sighed. "I want to tell this to you the right way."

"What is the right way?" Nabu asked her the question that was stuck in her own mind.

"I...let's do this later. Please?"

"Okay."

* * *

"So I know that you have met them several times already. But since it's the time of the Knightley Games, my whole family would be there." Brandon was saying, perched upon her bed while Stella struggled to choose which outfits to pack. Brandon had told her about the Masquerade Dancing Ball that was being held tonight for the grand commencement of the one hundred and seventy fifth Knightly Games of Eraklyon and she badly was in need of a new gown.

"Aa huh." Stella muttered, not bothering to turn around.

"Yeah, so I wanted you to meet them all. Officially you know." The brown eyed hero said, looking closely at the goddess in front of him. Even when they had been dating for a very long time now and Stella had actually met his parents a bunch of times, she had never been introduced to his entire family formerly. He knew that she was _it_ for him and he couldn't think of any good reason to further delay her meeting with his whole family. The thing was, when you lived on different planets, meeting up with your family on a regular basis could be hard and since it was festive season on his planet, his complete family would be there. And Brandon couldn't think of any better opportunity than this for him to proudly introduce his princess to his family.

"As in not just your parents?" Stella dropped the dress in her hand, instantly swiveling around to face him.

"All of them. I would really love that."

"Officially?"

"Yeah." Brandon smiled.

"When?" For some reason, Stella was suddenly panicking.

"I was thinking tonight after the ball?" The squire suggested.

"Like... your whole family?"

"Ya?"

"Damn it! Now I _need_ to buy a new ball gown. These won't work. I have to look perfect." The princess of Solaria shot him one last panicked look before she started trashing her wardrobe.

"What do you mean? You have a full walk in wardrobe full of gowns." Brandon smiled at her, abandoning his place on her bed to lace his arms around her tiny waist, probing her to face him. Stella just looked at him with disbelief. Boys. They never understood, did they?

"And you are perfect just the way you are." His brown eyes were locked with her golden ones as he cupped her chin with one of his hands.

"I know that, silly." Stella let out a small giggle. "I just have to look even more perfect than I always look, you know?"

"Well then..." A sly smile spread across the squire's face. "Try dressing _down_ instead of dressing up." And with that, his lips met hers. Her soft lips melting in his. Tightening his grip around her waist, the hero deepened the kiss as her lips parted, granting his tongue the access. Their lips moving in perfect sync, as Brandon felt Stella smile into the kiss before parting away, leaving him breathless and wanting more.

"This is an emergency. I need to find Bloom and - " The fairy of the sun and the moon was cut short by a loud knock on the door. Brandon groaned before letting go of Stella to tend to the door. A certain raven haired hero was seen outside in the hallway.

"What's up, Helia?" Brandon asked.

"We need some help with Shooter." Helia whispered before walking away towards the way that he had come.

"Ugh. Be right back, babe. They just can't do anything without me." The squire called back before following Helia.

"Okay..." Stella whispered. Her head filled with various ideas of how she would make an entrance in the ball, looking irresistibly gorgeous in her new gown. A low sigh escaped her lips at the thought of that. And later, she would dance with her prince charming. It would all be just perfect.

"Gotta find Bloom." She started walking towards the door of her room and was surprised to see someone standing near the threshold.

"Brandon?" Stella frowned. "I thought you were helping the guys out or something."

"Well...I thought that you might need my _help_ more." Something about that sentence made a shiver run down her spine. There was something eerie the way he had said that.

"So..." The brown eyed hero gazed into her golden ones. Somehow his eyes were looking darker, if that was even possible. "Can I help you?" Brandon started towards her. Locking his hands around her waist, he kissed her with a massive amount of urgency and Stella suppressed a strong urge to push him and run away. This felt wrong. Don't know why, but it did. His mouth didn't taste the same. Feel the same.

"Uh...Brandon?" Stella whispered while the specialist kissed her neck. A pang of pain hit the princess when her neck suddenly stung. "Ouch!" The fairy exclaimed in horror, pushing the hero away to touch her neck. Her fingers made contact with some liquid and Stella's eyes widened in fright when she saw what it was. Blood.

"What is wrong with you?" Stella was revulsed. "You hurt me."

"Did I?" He whispered. Darkness suddenly exploded all around her, clouding her senses. And when everything cleared out, her eyes went wide in horror.

"You?!"

* * *

 ** _Hey guys! How are you all? Been awhile...huh? So I uploaded this as soon as it was completed. Let me know what you guys think. I really wanna know. All the love. Peace out!_**


	19. Chapter 19 - Lost in the rain

**Chapter 19 - Lost in the rain**

Drip. Drip. Drip. The rain had decided to grace Magix with its presence once again. The sky above was overcast, blocking away the sun rays that tried to break through the thick sheet of dark clouds. Helia and Timmy had headed back to Red Fountain to bring the squad ship and Bloom's room was now empty, except for Sky and her of course. The others were probably busy with packing too. With a sigh, the keeper of the dragon flame closed her suitcase.

"What do you wanna do until Helia and Timmy are back?" Sky asked, plopped upon Bloom's bed.

"Um..." Bloom turned around, locking her eyes with his and deliberating for a moment. "I was thinking of finding that book about Lake of Wisdom in the Alfea library."

Sky let her words hang in the air for sometime, his blue eyes never leaving hers. "Bloom...you need to breath. Just...sit for awhile. A lot happened on Earth yesterday and you have done nothing but fret since then." The hero finally said.

"What?" Bloom's eyebrows flew up at the accusation. "What are you talking about? Sky, you don't understand we need that book."

"Did you sleep yesterday night?" The King of Eraklyon decided to ignore her questions.

"Huh?" The princess ambled towards her bed, taking a seat beside him.

"Of course I did." The blue eyed fairy lied, nodding her head to make it sound more genuine.

"No you didn't." Sky shook his head in disagreement. The specialist knew her too well so there was no point in lying. Bloom just let out a sigh of defeat.

"It's not like I didn't want to. I couldn't" Her voice was heavy with tiredness. Slowly, Bloom rested her head on his shoulder, a low yawn escaping her lips.

"You should give someone else the chance to save the world for a change, you know?" The blonde hero took her hands in his while Bloom sealed her eyes shut.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know what I mean by that." Sky whispered, not wanting to say anything more. A loud lightening strike was heard outside and the sound of thunder filled the room as silence settled around.

"I just..." The fairy trailed off. "I am worried."

"We all are."

"You know, I...felt so useless." Sky knew too well what she was talking about. After six years of knowing each other, the two could communicate in broken conversations. The other continuing the conversation where it was left off. Sometimes, words weren't even needed. A look at her was all the King needed to know what was going on in her mind.

"It wasn't your fault." The specilaist tried reassuring her. " _No fairy_ can transform in that much amount of dark magic."

"Yeah but Duman knows the location of the other wizards now. It won't be long before he frees them if he hasn't already that is."

"So?" Sky looked down at her.

"So?" Bloom repeated his question back. "They will be free Sky, don't you understand?"

"I do Bloom. You think I am stupid?" The blonde hero was surprised at amount of heat in his voice. Bloom had retreated to an upright position now. "We have defeated them once. We will defeat them again. You worry too much Bloom."

"I worry too much?" Bloom's voice rang in his ears. "He has the I-stone, Sky. And I couldn't fight him."

" _We_ couldn't fight him." The specialist corrected her. Sky hated it when Bloom left him out like that. Putting her own life at risk to save the day. Yeah, she was the keeper of the dragon flame and mighty strong. But was it too selfish to ask for his fiancée to be safe, out of the evil's claws for a change? "Why don't we let someone else play hero this time?" The King of Eraklyon blurted out in a rush, not really thinking as the words just rolled out from his tongue. Bloom's brows formed an arch across her forehead, forming a crease at her temples before her eyes narrowed.

"Wait." The princess said, getting up from the bed. "What do you mean by that?" Her voice rose an octave. "What do you want me to do, Sky? Just sit around while Earth meets it's impending doom? Huh?"

"No..." Sky shook his head. "I just want you to...be safe." Bloom's eyes were still narrowed at her fiancé.

"So you think I can't take care of myself?"

Sky frowned at that, not knowing what to say. Where was this going anyway?

"No. Did I say that?" The hero asked, trying to calm the situation down.

"You sure implied that." Bloom was quick to retort. "Look, we all are stressed out already." The fairy said in a lighter tone. "Please don't worsen the situation."

" _I am_ worsening the situation?" The specialist continued frowning, his eyes fixed on hers. "You are the one who brings it up all the time."

"Well, pardon me" The keeper of the dragon flame scoffed. "I care."

"You think I don't?"

"Maybe. I don - " Whatever it was that Bloom wanted to say was cut short by a blood cuddling scream from the room next door. A loud bang was heard and then everything went eerily silent.

"Stella!" Bloom screamed, reaching for the door and Sky was close behind her.

* * *

Water was one of the most soothing things in his life. He couldn't tell what it was, this feeling of pure ease that washed over his entire being whenever he was near water. Whatever it was, it was too good for words. Now, as he stood in the rain with her, the same feeling engulfed him. The rain had caught them both by surprise and now that they were completely drenched, they did not see the point of searching for shelter.

"Don't you just love it?" Layla smiled, tilting her head upwards towards the overcast sky.

"Uh ha." Nabu agreed, a smile of his own spread across his features.

Both of them continued standing in the Alfea Quadrangle while the relentless rain did not cease. But by the looks of things, it did bother the two in the slightest. A small familiar gleam was seen in the sky above and the wizard's grin widened.

"Hey, there they are with the ship." Nabu said, watching as Shooter was landed in front of them in the open space that the quad had on offer. It hadn't taken long for Helia and Timmy to return with the ship from Red Fountain. The Levi bikes that the specialists had parked lousily this morning at the quad were now inside the ship, thanks to Timmy's automated call button and Shooter was well equipped, completely fixed and ready to go. Nabu and Layla were just waiting for them to return so that the two could say goodbyes to everyone and leave for Andros. The gates opened wide and four figures strolled out of the ship. Helia, Timmy and two that Nabu did not quiet recognise. A frown appeared on the wizard's face as the four boys continued walking towards the duo.

"Hey, guys. What are you two doing outside?" Timmy called as he neared the two. "Let's go inside."

"Yeah." Helia agreed. The ever calm hero looked a bit fidgety and a sick feeling of unease settled in Nabu's stomach. Something wasn't right. The four boys had reached them by now, forming a small group in the middle of the quad. The two unknown guys still hadn't spoken a single word. Nabu noticed that both of them had blue hair, but one's was a dark shade of Navy, too dark that it was really close to black and the other's on the contrary was more lighter. Their build was quiet muscular and Nabu figured that they were both specialists at Red Fountain, but he did not quiet see the point of them being here right now. The wizard was still processing all of this when something happened. The light blue haired guy engulfed Layla in a bear hug, practically assaulting her.

"Missed you Layla." He whispered, as if this was all completely normal. Something was bubbling up inside Nabu now. Envy, he figured.

 _Hello? Her fiancé here,_ the wizard thought with an unhealthy amount of bitterness as inadvertently, his hands balled into fists. It was brief hug and Layla gave the blue haired guy a feeble smile.

"Yeah...Guys. This is Nabu." Timmy chimed in. "Nabu, they are Jared and Nex."

"Nex is a paladin from Linphea College, he just finished a trainee teacher course at Red Fountain. And Jared's one of the specialists under me. He's training in teaching too." Helia announced.

"Nice to meet you." Nex and Jared said in unison. Nabu gave them a blunt nod, his eyes narrowing a tad at Nex.

"I am gonna check on Musa and others." Jared said and with a final nod, he was gone, walking towards the school building.

"I have heard about you Nex." Nabu said.

"Frankly, I haven't." The paladin admitted with a small grin.

"Okay, guys...so...yeah." Timmy said before he started towards the school too, Helia close by him. Layla watched them retreat towards the school building and wished that they would stop. She knew that this was it. She still had no idea how, but she had to introduce Nex to Nabu now. Explain all of this to him. She had been dreading this for awhile now and it was better if she might just get it over with.

"So how do you know Layla?" Nabu asked Nex.

A smile spread across Nex's face. "How do I know her? She's my girlfriend."

"Your girlfriend?!" Nabu's voice had threateningly rose, too angry to be polite anymore. " _Girlfriend?_ " The wizard's eyes had darted upon Layla by now.

"Yeah." Nex said, frowning.

Nabu's dark eyes were burning into her turquoise ones and Layla couldn't do anything but stare back, too scared to look away. She could see it all dancing around in his eyes, he looked angry, disheartened, shaken, betrayed, his eyes speaking volumes. And underneath it all Layla saw the hurt in those eyes, the pain of abandonment and she wanted kiss it all away. She wanted to but she couldn't. Nabu did not look away and neither did she, inducing Nex to clear his throat awkwardly.

"And what about you? How do you know her?" The paladin broke the screaming silence that had settled around them. Nabu turned his gaze towards him.

"Me?" A proud smile played on his lips. "I am her fiancé."

Silence.

Drip. Drip. Drip. The sound of the rain drops around them intensified, dominating the space.

"Is this a joke?" Nex frowned whilst Nabu just continued smiling at him. The paladin looked at Layla in confusion.

"Nex...just. I can't do this right now. Could you just leave us two alone for sometime?" Layla finally said, still gazing at Nabu.

"What's going on?" Nex demanded, not comprehending a thing. "Layla?"

"Nex...go. Please." Layla begged, snapping her head towards his direction. The paladin sighed and left without another word, going back towards the ship that was parked in their vicinity.

"That's a great boyfriend you have right there." Nabu finally said, smiling, but the smile didn't quiet reach his eyes. "Strapping."

"It's not what you think Nabu. I..."

"It's exactly what I think." The wizard's face was stoic, giving away nothing, while inside, he could feel a storm raging on.

"Let me explain." Layla's voice shook.

"What's there to explain, Layla?" Nabu grinned. "When I was struggling for life, fighting for every single breath on Earth, you were busy here making boyfriends."

"Nabu...I..." A small tear rolled down her cheek.

"So let me get this straight Layla. When I was in that _dark sleep_ or whatever it was, instead of helping me, instead of finding a cure, you were here, romancing random men?"

Layla closed her eyes shut for a brief moment, letting his words sting her, shaking her to her very core.

"Was I dead to you already?" Nabu's voice rang in her ears. "Maybe I shouldn't have come back, huh?"

"Don't say that." Layla begged, hugging her torso as a shiver ran down her spine.

"I just..." Nabu was backing away from her now. "I can't believe it, Layla."

"So don't." Layla suggested foolishly, stretching her hand towards him.

A throaty chuckle erupted from the wizard's thoart while he continued backing away from the princess.

"You think it's that easy?" Nabu asked her.

"No...I was stupid and..."

"And?" The wizard pressed.

"And I don't expect you to forgive me, Nabu."

"Good." Nabu gave a quick nod, his face expressionless. He had retrieved his staff by now, making it magically appear in his hands. Opening a portal to Andros with it, Nabu gave her one last look, his dark eyes meeting her turquoise ones. Layla could feel her shoulders slumping, guilt pushing her down till she lost her footing. His eyes were heavy with hurt and pain and her vision was being blurred by her own tears. "Good." Nabu repeated before he stepped into the vortex, disappearing in a tornado of light, leaving her behind in the dripping rain.

"Nabu." Layla whispered.

"Nabu."

"Nabu."

"Nabu." He didn't come back. Of course he didn't. Gravity had become too strong now and Layla now found herself on the wet and muddy ground, her hands clutching her torso. Life was a cruel thing. It hadn't even been a week since he was back and somehow, he was gone again. Out of her reach. Out of her arms. Every muscle and fiber in her body screamed to go after him, but she knew that she shouldn't right now. He wouldn't listen. He had a right not to. Tears escaped her eyes, trickling down her cheeks as they got lost. Lost in the rain.

* * *

"Sun strom!" Stella screamed at the top of her lungs, aiming the shot at her adversary. It hit the target perfectly, only to be absorbed by her opponent.

"That's all you got, fairy?" The opponent let out a loud chuckle.

"Duman!" Someone said from behind and the wizard turned around at the call of his name, a smirk spreading across his face to see who it was.

"Aah Bloom. Come join the party." Duman said, grinning. Sky was right behind Bloom, his saber pulled out. The hero wasted no time in trash talking as he charged, headfirst, running headlong into Duman, the blade slashing right into the sorcerer's shoulder.

"I pity you people." Duman shook his head before morphing into a wild beast, pinning Sky down on the ground. The King of Eraklyon watched in horror as the cut that he had made just now on the wizard's shoulder instantaneously healed.

"Ray of fire!" Bloom aimed at Duman. The keeper of dragon flame had transformed by now and was continuously shooting at the wizard. Duman had suddenly lost interest in the blonde hero as he lunged at the fairy of the dragon flame.

"Dance of light!" Stella blasted the room with her spell, filling it up with a plethora of bright white light.

"When will you understand that fairy magic just makes me stronger?" Duman chuckled, morphing back to his normal self.

"What do you want Duman?" Stella glared at the sorcerer.

"Oh...you know exactly what I want, princess." A dirty grin spread across the wizard's face and the fairy of the sun and the moon just wanted to knock it right off his smug face.

"Don't you?" Duman frowned at Stella before chuckling in a conceited fashion.

"Dragon Arrow!" Bloom screamed as a warm ball of energy hit the wizard, knocking him off the floor.

"What do you want?" Bloom asked in a heated voice. Duman just laughed before he got up and brushed himself. Before anything more could happen, the door to Stella's room was flung open as three very worried specialists walked in, with Flora right behind them. Timmy and Helia were carrying Brandon's limp body in their hands as Jared instantly drew his sword out.

"What's going on? We found Brandon passed out in the hallway." Helia informed.

"Well, looks like it's my time to go." Duman announced. A tunnel of darkness and poof, the wizard had vanished out of sight.

"Brandon!" Stella rushed as the two specialists put the hero down on Stella's bed.

"What happened?" Flora asked, dazed. Stella and Bloom had transformed back now.

"He just...caught me off guard." The princess of Solaria whispered, her hand stroking Brandon's hair. "And I couldn't fight him." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Are you alright, Stella?" Bloom was quick to ask, rushing by her side.

"I..." The Solarian delibrated. "I...don't know. I am fine I guess. Where are the others?" Stella desperately wanted to talk about anything but this.

"Are you sure?" Flora asked.

"Where are the others?" Stella demanded more sternly.

"Tecna and Musa are in the cafeteria and Riven's with them. Layla and Nabu are outside." The fairy of nature informed in a rush.

"He will be fine." Flora said, nodding at Brandon. "I healed him with some medicine. He will be up and well in no time."

"Duman must have done this to him." Stella hissed. "I will kill him."

"Stella?" Bloom whispered. "What's that on your neck?"

"Huh?" The Solarian beauty reached for her neck and instantly regretted it when it stung. "Aah..." Stella groaned in pain.

"Oh my gosh Stella." Bloom gasped. "That's the mark of the stone. Duman just marked you for the location of the next stone."

"Huh?"

* * *

 _ **I know this wasn't long. But well, I don't know which part of the world y'all from, but the schools have just started here and it's CRAZY! Literally. School sucks! I miss summer. But it's rainy season here and if you guys haven't noticed already...I love rains. Absolutely adore them. Anyways...so Nabu finally found out about Nex. And Stella's marked. Soo...what did you guys think? Let me know. And thank-you so much for your lovely reviews on the last chapter! You guys rock! Well...stay tuned. Stay fab! All the love. Peace out! TBC...**_


	20. Chapter 20 - Drip Drip Drip

_Hey guys! How are you all? Before starting I just wanted to put this out there. Yes, Nabu was too harsh in the last chapter, but when you think about it, doesn't it make sense? I mean he's back from the dead after two years and finds out that the love of his life, his fiancée hadn't even tried helping him. Instead, she started dating someone else. Idk, but it seems fair that he reacted that way, no matter how compassionate and loving his character is. Well, that's just how I see it. And a lot of you want Riven to just kick Jared's butt. But...well Jared seems like a nice guy up in my head. But that doesn't mean that Riven won't do anything. It's just he won't do anything yet. He's under Duman's spell and won't be able to recognise him anyway. They will meet. But not now. But soon. Or not. Idk...anyways. That was long...lol. So here's the 20th chapter. 20th! Still can't believe that it's 20th! Happy reading! (Wrote this while listening to 'Jet Black Heart' by 5 SOS, I suggest you guys listen to it while reading. Sets the mood.)_

* * *

 **Chapter** **2** **0 - Drip. Drip. _Drip_**

 ** _Drip_** ** _._** _ **Drip. Drip. The sky above was threateningly dark, too dark, as if just waiting to consume all of them in. A shiver ran down his spine as he strived to ignore the coldness around him. His eyes darted at the people across him, all of them sitting in a half circle.**_

 _ **"Keen and persisten - " She had abruptly stopped chanting beside him and he gazed at her from his side questioningly.**_

 _ **"Something wrong?" The wizard asked, locking his eyes with hers. Her eyes were wild with fear, her beautiful face marred with heavy pain.**_

 _ **"I...can't." She gasped for air. "The spell is taking too much of my energy."**_

 _ **"But we need to seal the vortex, or we will lose our powers." Ogron's voice rang in Duman's ears.**_

 _ **"But..." She protested.**_

 _ **"You want some rest?" Duman whispered softly, earning a loud grunt from Gantlos.**_

 _ **"How much more rest? " Gantlos scoffed, unpleased. "Listen brother, we have poured out almost all of our powers in that Ring. If that portal sucks in that Ring, we would be bereft of any powers. We need to keep feeding the vortex. "Duman just gave Gantlos a glare and rushed to her side.**_

 _ **"Are you okay?"**_

 _ **"Yes." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I think the vortex is fed enough for now. Maybe I should just take the Ring and install it in my kingdom."**_

 _ **"I don't know about that. Maybe we should wait for some more time." Ogron suggested.**_

 _ **"Time is what I don't have Ogron. " She breathed. "I need to save my kingdom."**_

 _ **"But if you take the Ring away, the vortex may get unstable." Ogron said. "We might lose our powers forever."**_

 _ **"That won't happen. I'll just take the Ring, and install some of it's powers in the Palace and then, I'll be back with the Ring." She promised, reaching for the small metal band that was laid in front of her, a strange gleam surrounding it. Slowly, she picked the Ring up in her hand.**_

 _ **"Careful." Anagan warned. "All our powers are in there."**_

 _ **"I will guard it with my life." She promised, leaving her place on the ground. "Your powers will stabalize my kingdom once again. You don't know how grateful we all will be."**_

 _ **"Bring it back soon. The vortex is getting unstable already." Gantlos said, his eyes never leaving the massive portal of energy in front of him. The other side of the portal could be seen from where he was and he was mesmerized by what lay in there. Absolute and pure magic. Pure magic, in its darkest form. The Black Dimension. He knew that the Ring must be returned back to the dimension before it grew unstable or all hell will break loose. The wizards had to pour all their powers in the Ring to help make it more feasible to carry it back to her Kingdom. The Ring in a way, was a sort of strong carrier of magic. The kind that could withhold that much amount of energy and not give way.**_

 _ **"I will bring it back." She said with confidence and with that, she turned away, away towards her kingdom. Leaving the four wizards behind in the rain.**_

 _ **"Morgana!" Duman called, getting up to go after the Queen of the Earth fairies. She abruptly stopped dead in her tracks, swiveling around at the call of her name.**_

 _ **"Duman?"**_

 _ **"Be safe."**_

 _ **Morgana broke into a smile, her features lighting up a bit.**_

 _ **"And come back soon." He said, his eyes searching hers.**_

 _ **"I will."**_

Of course she never did. And even when Duman thought other wise, convinced that he couldn't care the tiniest bit that she didn't come back, somewhere deep down, he knew that her betrayal had struck him hard and it still somehow managed to...bother him, in a way that he thought was wizards were different back then, one of the first in the history of magic to be the proud practicers of black magic and white magic. They were the perfect balance. When she left them, the portal, like it was supposed to, had closed after awhile and the Ring, carrying their powers, where ever it was, had disappeared with it. Leaving the wizards...powerless. Bereft of any powers. And that is when things took a turn. They knew that they couldn't survive without magic and they were in the desperate need of a source. Betrayed, the wizards turned to the magic that was still around. The magic of the fairies. For a long time, Duman was in denial, not wanting to believe that Morgana could betray him. The relationship between the wizards and the fairies wasn't this bad from the start. They were on helping terms with each other. And Duman had admitted to himself that he had cared for Morgana. To the point where it had gotten unhealthy. They had all been through so much together. Never in a million years could the wizards have imagined that she would do such a thing. She must have her reasons. Duman hoped she did.

Now as he trudged on towards their lair, he tried shaking the haunting memories away.

"Look who's back." Anagan was quick to say, lounging on a worn out leather couch when his eyes landed on Duman. "Give me the good news."

"One of the winx is marked." Duman announced and Anagan nodded.

"Which one?" Gantlos asked from behind the poorly curtained living room, which was just in the wake of the seating area which was occupied by Anagan for the moment.

"Uh...Stella." Duman murmured, making a beeline towards the living room.

"Very well." Ogron let out a grin, seated across Gantlos. "Now we just need to build up our powers. Omega Dimension has weakened us. Then..." Ogron chuckled. "We can pay out fairy friends a little visit."

* * *

Something buzzed in his pocket and the magenta haired hero strayed his eyes away from the view in front of him to retreive his phone from his jeans pocket. A shiver ran down his spine. The view in front of him was simply beautiful. The terrace in Alfea had one of the best views of the place and you could see anything and everything from up there. This spot had always been special to his heart. If he remebered correctly, this is where he had asked Musa out officially. It was the start of the junior year and everything had seemed too magically perfect back then. Oh, how wrong and naive he was.

He had received a message, and a smile spread across his face to see who it was from. This was going to be interesting. The message popped up:

 _Consider yourself lucky because your work is done - Jim._

He had to admit that he was intrigued now. The hero had lost all his hopes, truth to be spoken.

 _But wasn't the information non existent?_ His fingers flew on his hand held Levi phone screen as he replied back.

His phone buzzed as another message was received.

 _No. Had to do some serious amount of work but I got my hands on the information._

Riven's brows flew up. Was this really happening? Will he finally know the truth now?

 _Well, why don't you send it to me right now?_

Another message.

 _Wow, straight to the point? No thank you or how are you? Jeez, Riven._

The violet eyed specialist was getting frustrated now.

 _Just give me the info Jim. You are getting on my nerves._

The phone in his hand vibrated yet again.

 _Well, this is sensitive info. Can't send it all like this. But remember, I owe you nothing now. So, there has been a conflict. We have found two similar cases. And one of them is her, hopefully._

Riven frowned.

 _What do you mean?_

No reply. The hero was getting fidgety now. Flustered, he gritted his teeth as his eyes continued staring at his screen. No reply.

 _Damn you Jim. Reply._

Nothing. Tearing his eyes away from his screen, the hero glanced at the sheet of rain up front. The rain was merciless. Strong. Not giving in. The sound of a lightening strike filled the space around him and Riven struggled to make sense of his thoughts. They were all over the place, clashing inside his head. A hurricane rising up somewhere within him, he could feel it. And he knew very well that it won't be long before it wrecks everything down. Clobbering his walls. This was it. He wouldn't have to wonder or assume anymore. He would just know. Suddenly, the idea of just _knowing_ dreaded him. Horrifying him to his very core. What would he do when he finds out? Will he...

"Riven?!" A voice called from somewhere behind him, derailing his train of thoughts.

The hero didn't turn around as the owner of the voice took a place beside him, leaning on the railing.

"I knew you would be here."

His brows knotted together as a clear frown appeared on his forehead.

"How?" The specialist continued frowning. His violet eyes buring into her blue ones.

"It's your favourite spot at Alfea." The fairy shrugged casually, averting her gaze from his.

His frown deepened.

"How did you know that, Bloom?"

Something changed in her stance as her face got marred by disappointment all of a sudden. The fairy of music did not know what to say to that. His eyes were still searching hers and she finally caved, locking her eyes with him. She was still Bloom to him and she shouldn't be surprised or disappointed but she knew she was by this. Tired of all this pretence, Musa sighed.

"Somethings..." Riven fianlly said, breaking the fleeting silence that had settled between them. "Not right." His amethyst eyes held hers in place and she couldn't help but stare back. Of course. Nothing was right. Was anything ever right?

"Um...Musa told me about this spot." The songstress finally said, deciding to ignore his statement.

"The ships here." Musa informed.

"Ship?"

"The squad ship?"

Realization dawned upon the hero. "Are we going somewhere?" It hadn't been long before Nabu's spell finally wore off and Riven had caught himself, all dazed sitting alone, with no one in sight, at the Cafeteria of the school. In a desperate need of some time by himself, the specialist had aimlessly wandered the corridors of the school of magic afterwards. And had finally settled for Musa and his favorite hang out spot, not knowing why he would put himself through that but it was as if he was compelled to.

"Yeah you people are. I have somewhere else to be." She said, veering towards the school's corridors. Riven was close behind her. Something was wrong, the hero could tell. But he was too preoccupied to talk.

* * *

The sky in Eraklyon was clear of any clouds and rain. This was a warm change and everyone had welcomed it very eagerly, too desperate to get away from the rainy season in Magix. The squad ship, somehow seemed too vacant to her turquoise eyes, despite the fact that it had nine other passengers adn was lavishly equipped. Five and a half hours had gone by in the snap of fingers as the princess of Andros continued staring at the metalled floor of Shooter.

"Entering the atmosphere of Eraklyon." Layla heard someone say from the controller's pit. Helia, she assumed. After Nabu had walked out on her, Layla was petrified, down on the muddy ground, questioning her own sanity when Flora had found her, taking her back to the dorms. He needed time. She was fine with it. But she needed him. And she needed to know that he would forgive her soon. She wanted it all. The Winx had convinced her to come along with them to Eraklyon. This was a change of plans but she had nothing else to do. God knows when Nabu would be back. She hoped it to be soon. She had clearly implied that she wanted to be alone right now and now as she sat all alone in the lounging chamber, she found herself fighting back tears that she knew won't cease to flood her eyes soon. Musa had left for Melody and Stella was apparently marked. But they still decided to go to the Lake of Wisdom anyway. All of them in a very desperate need of answers. And Riven had to be cured too.

Her teal blue eyes darted at the windows of the ship and her eyes suddenly went wide.

"Is that..." Stella screamed from the controller's room. "Blood?" Her honey golden eyes wild with horror. Large splatters of a red liquid continued showering down on the ship. It was raining blood. The princess of Solaria couldn't believe her own eyes.

"What's going on?" Flora's voice reverberated around the controller's room. Layla had now joined everyone in the room.

"Something's not right." Sky announced, his hands tight on the controls.

"We can see that Sky. Thank you for stating the obvious." Brandon shot back sarcastically, a deep frown spread across his features.

"BLOOD?!" Stella's voice cracked, close to hysterics.

The windshield of the ship was getting blurry now.

"Alright. Everybody CALM DOWN!" Stella screamed. "CALM DOWN!"

"Stella." The squire called. "We will be fine."

"It's blood." The Solarian's voice hinted that Brandon obviously couldn't see the dripping blood from the sky and she had to put it out there to enlighten him with this piece of information.

"We will be fine, Stella." Bloom tried convincing her.

Whatever the crimson liquid was, it continued pouring down from the sky. So much for a clear sky.

Riven's eyes were fixed at the screen as he strived to process all this. Something buzzed in his pocket again and he instantaneously reached for it. A message came into view.

 _One of them is from the planet Creda. And have you heard of Eraklyon?_ The text read.

 _Bad timing, Jim._ The hero couldn't help but think, mentally cursing before typing a yes.

The hero was standing near Timmy's controller's chair, his hands gripping it for support.

 _And want do you feel about the royalty over there?_ Another text from Jim.

 _Why would you ask me that?_ He replied.

Buzz.

 _Because chances are that you are half royalty, Riv._

Riven blinked as the ship began to land near the place entrance. The red liquid relentlessly pouring down. Drip. Drip. Drip.

* * *

 _ **This**_ _ **chapter might have been too rusty I guess. That's only because it's four in the morning here and I stayed up all night writing it. Have mercy! Hope you guys are having splendid holidays! And those of you, the unlucky ones like me, who's schools have started well...we are strong people and we will get through! :) :P Well, thank you for your lovely reviews on the last chapter! You guys keep me going. Or I would have just given up on this one. Anyways, let me know what you think, and...All the love. Stay tuned. Peace out!**_


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